BizCap (Business Capital since 2002) structured and secured multi-tranche credit facilities totaling $40 million for a branded cheese producer and processor in California.
In business for more than 75 years, the family-owned company sells to more than 80 retailers across the U.S. and Mexico, including Costco, Wal-Mart, Sprouts and Kroger. In addition, it produces large block bulk cheese primarily sold to the food service industry and whey protein (a milk byproduct used primarily in sports and nutritional drinks) industry. It also owns and operates an almond farming and production business with nearly 3,400 planted acres.
The funding from BizCap included a global committed revolving credit facility for both the dairy and almond operations, as well as a delayed draw term loan and standby letter of credit facilities. This infusion of working capital will allow the company to ramp up both its cheese production and almond farming businesses, support the very different seasonal working capital demands required by both operations and fund future capex projects to increase production capacity and automation.
“With all of the recent challenges faced by the agriculture industry, from weather, depletion of resources to politics, BizCap was delighted to assist another farmer, the backbone of this country, with forward momentum,” Chuck Doyle, president and CEO of BizCap, said. “Our client was delighted to replace their incumbent lender with a bank able to understand the complexity of financing multiple entities under one roof. The BizCap team has decades of experience and many successful agriculture transactions under our belt, so was able to quickly and clearly underwrite this client’s businesses resulting in greater access to capital at a reduced rate with a more customized intelligent structure.”
