Meaningful Partners Announces a Strategic Growth Investment in M2 Ingredients / Om Mushroom Superfood

Meaningful Partners LLC (“Meaningful”) announced today the initial closing of a strategic growth investment in M2 Ingredients and Om Mushroom Superfood, (“M2”, “Om” or the “Company”), a vertically integrated nutraceuticals platform focused on organic functional mushrooms, providing clinically-proven whole body health benefits including cognitive, immunity and stress relief/sleep support. Meaningful Partners led the funding round and was joined by existing investors White Road Investments and InvestEco. The investment will help accelerate the distribution and marketing of Om as well as scale manufacturing to meet customer demand via their new state-of-the-art growing facility.

“Meaningful Partners is keenly aligned with our purpose driven company – M2 Ingredients/Om Mushroom strives to harness the amazing power of mushrooms for healthier lives”, said Dr. Sandra Carter, Founder and CEO of the Company. ”Meaningful’s network, capital support and strategic vision in conjunction with our current investors and team will position M2 Ingredients to lead the functional mushroom industry in science and scale as an ingredient supplier and to continue to produce high quality, highly efficacious and innovative products through Om Mushroom Superfood. Our company is built on the expertise and passion of our team who have pioneered the functional mushroom industry and we are proud to have Meaningful Partners support our team and mission.”

M2 Ingredients is a vertically integrated nutraceuticals platform, leveraging the power of 100% organic whole food functional mushrooms through their B2B platform, M2 Ingredients, and their in-house superfood supplement brand, Om. The Company operates the largest organic functional mushroom growing facility in North America, growing ten species including Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Reishi, Turkey Tail and Cordyceps, with seven patented strains. The Company has built a new 155,00 square foot growing facility in Vista, California, to open in Q1 2024, which will significantly increase growing capacity to satisfy its increasing customer demand.

Om uses M2’s high quality mushrooms to deliver innovative and clinically-proven supplements, powders, gummies, drink mixes and protein powders across the natural, direct-to-consumer and e-commerce channels. This new investment will support the Company’s execution of its strategic vision, including the strengthening of its leading market position across existing channels as well as expanding distribution to reach new customers. Functional mushrooms have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years and have been increasingly used in natural/better-for-you supplements as well as food & beverages for their health benefits, including improved memory and focus (nootropics), immunity, stress relief and sleep support and more.

“At Meaningful Partners, we invest in companies at the intersection of Purpose and Profit so could not be more excited to partner with Sandra, her high performing management team and the existing investor group to help execute on the Company’s next stage of growth” said Jake Capps, co-Founder and Managing Partner of Meaningful Partners. “M2 has been at the forefront of providing the highest quality and clinically-backed functional mushrooms for over a decade and with their new, state-of-the-art growing facility will be well positioned to support existing and new customer demand in a category that grew over 50% last year. Additionally, the Company’s Om brand has the highest growth of any other scaled brand in the functional mushroom category with a massive opportunity to further increase distribution across every channel of trade to reach customers that are increasingly seeking to embrace natural and clinically-backed superfood products to help improve whole body health outcomes.”

Blair Kellison, part of the Meaningful Partner’s Expert Community of seasoned operators across the consumer sector, will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors of M2. Blair brings more than 30 years of experience in the natural and better-for-you food, beverage and supplement space, formerly serving as the CEO of Traditional Medicinals.

Buchalter represented Meaningful Partners as legal counsel in connection with the investment. Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck represented M2 Ingredients as legal counsel. Harrison & Co. advised M2 Ingredients related to the financing round. Terms of the investment are not disclosed.

About M2 Ingredients

M2 Ingredients, founded in 2010 and based in Carlsbad, CA, is a leading producer of 100% organic, whole food mushroom powders with the full spectrum of bioactive compounds to support daily health, sports performance, recovery and cognition, with a consumer-packaged-goods brand, Om, that uses their high quality mushroom powders and proprietary formulas to sell easy-to-consumer, multi-factor wellness products utilizing an omni-channel strategy with nationwide distribution.

About Meaningful Partners LLC

Meaningful Partners, with offices in Los Angeles, CA and Austin, TX, invests in purposeful consumer products and services businesses that have earned customer trust and loyalty, demonstrate a commitment to all stakeholders, and are led by management teams empowering positive purpose and performance. Meaningful Partners makes control and minority investments ranging from $10 million to $50+ million in lower-middle market and high-growth companies. The firm is led by an experienced investor and operator management team that leverages an Expert Community of 45+ CEO/Founders and discipline experts with over 850+ years of collective experience who bring relevant domain expertise to help accelerate the growth and impact at our partner companies. More at www.meaningfulpartners.com.

About InvestEco

InvestEco Capital Corp has a 20-year history of investing in growing North American businesses. Since the launch of InvestEco Sustainable Food Fund I in 2012, InvestEco has focused on promoting Canadian and US businesses seeking to improve health outcomes and reduce the environmental impacts of the overall food ecosystem. Learn more at https://investeco.com.

Meaningful Partners, LLC and Focus Impact Partners, LLC Announce a Strategic Growth Investment in Skiptown

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Dec. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Meaningful Partners, LLC (“Meaningful”) and Focus Impact Partners, LLC (“Focus Impact”) announced today the initial closing of a strategic growth investment in Skiptown, (‘the “Company”), an innovative pet services and social experiences platform. The investment will enable Skiptown to expand its operations and open new locations across new markets.

“We are excited and grateful to be partnering with the Focus Impact and Meaningful teams. With their expertise, capital, and network, we’ll be able to expand Skiptown into new markets, continuing our mission to raise the standard of pet care across the country”, said Meggie Williams, Founder & CEO of Skiptown, “Meaningful and Focus Impact bring decades of consumer technology, experiential services, and multi-unit retail experience. Their intense focus on purposeful profits and positive people impact aligns with our mission, and, together, we’ll establish Skiptown as the preeminent nationally recognized brand for pups and their people.”

Skiptown is committed to revolutionizing pet care services and providing fun, safe and engaging social experiences for pets and their families. Skiptown is a pioneer in personalized, high-quality dog care, offering a complete suite of services, including dog walking, dog daycare, dog boarding, and dog grooming. The Company’s services are built around a philosophy of creating a personalized enrichment program to fit each dog’s specific physical and emotional needs. Skiptown has innovated a private, indoor/outdoor, off-leash dog park and bar, creating a unique community for dogs and their parents. Skiptown’s robust technology platform enables and integrates its premium social and service offerings, allowing for a streamlined customer experience, personalized care for every dog, and simplified team member (“Skippers”) operations. Additionally, Skiptown is deeply committed to providing its Skippers with a rewarding work environment focused on personal and professional growth development, alignment, and teamwork.

“Skiptown is fundamentally changing the standard of pet care through research, people, and technology. We are excited to support Meggie and the team’s purposeful vision with our collective multi-unit scaling and operating experience” said Amin Maredia, Managing Partner at Meaningful Partners. “A significant addressable market with high growth and a unique offering makes for an exciting partnership.”

Wray Thorn, Partner & Co-Founder of Focus Impact, added “Focus Impact is pleased to be partnering with Meggie and the Skiptown team as they capitalize on the growth of the pet services industry and consumers’ trends toward experiences. With an innovative combination of premium pet services, engaging social experiences, and a scalable technology platform, we believe Skiptown is poised to expand significantly and create many more positive impactful outcomes for its employees and customers.”

In connection with the investment, Steve King, will be joining the Board of Directors of Skiptown. Steve brings more than 30 years of consumer experiential services expansion and operating expertise as the Chairman & CEO of Dave & Busters Entertainment Inc. and the COO and CFO of Carlson Restaurants Worldwide. Skiptown CEO Williams noted, “we’re also very pleased Steve will be joining the Skiptown Board in connection with this investment and look forward to benefiting from his many years of successful growth leadership in the consumer services sector.”

Alston & Bird LLC represented Focus Impact and Buchalter represented Meaningful Partners as legal counsel in connection with the investment. In addition, AlixPartners, Fuld & Company, PFK O’Connor Davies, Marsh USA Inc. and Mercer (US) Inc. provided due diligence support. Wagner Hicks PLLC represented Skiptown as legal counsel. Terms of the investment are not disclosed.

Focus Impact is a private investment firm on a mission to amplify social impact and generate impactful profits by bringing capital and expertise to “socially forward” companies, which we define as businesses that create positive outcomes for their employees and / or customers. Mission-driven and returns-focused, we endeavor to accelerate the growth of great businesses through a combination of intentional strategic leadership, comprehensive capital formation, deep M&A expertise, data & technology-driven business solutions, and a social forward focus.

Skiptown is the first integrated ecosystem for pets and their people, enabled by a cutting-edge technology platform and an expertly trained employee base. Skiptown offers an off-leash indoor and outdoor turfed park, a full service bar for humans, dog daycare, overnight boarding, dog grooming, and dog walking services. From valet daycare drop-off to the “Skippers” who monitor the pups at play, Skiptown is a doggie dreamland and high-end hangout for people and their four-legged family members. Skiptown’s technology platform streamlines appointment booking across all service lines. Skiptown customers can schedule and modify appointments, receive daily visit reports, and pay for services all through the Skiptown app. Learn more about how Skiptown is revolutionizing the pet parent experience at skiptown.io.

SOURCE Meaningful Partners

We are pleased to share that on April 4th 2022, Westrock Coffee Holdings, LLC, an investment of Meaningful Partners Dedicated Capital Vehicle I LP (MP DCV I), entered into a merger agreement with Riverview Acquisition Corp.
(NASDAQ: RVAC) through which the Company plans to go public.

April 04, 2022 07:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Westrock Coffee Holdings, LLC (“Westrock Coffee,” or “the Company”) today announced its plan to go public via a business combination with Riverview Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: RVAC) (“RVAC” or “Riverview”), which values the Company at approximately $1.086 billion. The proposed business combination will allow Westrock Coffee to accelerate the build-out of the United States’ largest roasting to ready-to-drink facility, as well as the Company’s further expansion into Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East in support of its blue-chip customers. Upon the closing of the transaction, the combined company will be named Westrock Coffee Company and is expected to be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “WEST.”

Westrock Coffee is led by Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Scott Ford, previously President and CEO of Alltel Wireless. Riverview is led by its Chairman and CEO, R. Brad Martin, Retired Chairman and CEO of Saks Incorporated and current Board member of FedEx Corporation and Pilot Company.

Click here for the full press release highlighting Westrock’s purpose-driven strategy that serves the world’s most iconic brands, delivers measurable global impact through sustainable sourcing, digitally traceable supply chain management and has a strong financial profile.

About Westrock Coffee Holdings, LLC

Westrock Coffee Holdings, LLC is a leading integrated coffee, tea, flavors, extracts, and ingredients solutions provider in the U.S., providing coffee sourcing, supply chain management, product development, roasting, packaging, and distribution services to retail, food service and restaurant, convenience store and travel center, non-commercial account, CPG, and hospitality industries around the world. With offices in 10 countries, the company sources coffee and tea from 35 origin countries.

About Riverview Acquisition Corporation

Riverview Acquisition Corp. is a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. Management is led by Chief Executive Officer R. Brad Martin, President Charles K. Slatery, and Chief Financial Officer Will Thompson.

More information about the transaction is also available on the Company’s investor relations page at Investors-Westrock Coffee Company.

About Meaningful Partners
Meaningful Partners, with offices in Los Angeles, CA and Austin, TX, invests in purposeful consumer businesses that have earned customer trust and loyalty, demonstrate a commitment to all stakeholders and are led by management teams empowering positive purpose and performance. Meaningful Partners makes control and minority investments ranging from $10 million to $50+ million in lower-middle market and high growth companies. The firm is led by an experienced investor and operator management team that leverages an Expert Community of 45+ CEO/Founders and discipline experts with over 800+ years of collective experience who bring relevant domain expertise to help accelerate the growth and impact at our partner companies. More at https://meaningfulpartners.com.

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Broadview Group Holdings, LLC (“Broadview”), a leader in directmiddle-market investing, is excited to announce its strategic partnership with Meaningful Partners LLC (“Meaningful Partners”) via its commitment to Meaningful Partners Dedicated Capital Vehicle LP (together with its related vehicles, the “Fund”). Meaningful Partners is a private equity firm based in Los Angeles, California, specializing in purposeful consumer businesses.

With the commitment to Meaningful Partners, Broadview broadens its network and capabilities in the food, beverage, and agriculture sectors. Broadview’s exposure and investing acumen will now cover the entire food chain continuum. “Because we are not a private equity fund, our permanent capital base allows us to be extremely entrepreneurial, giving us the flexibility to form these types of partnerships that not only generate excellent absolute returns, but also accelerate our own direct investing efforts and expand our capabilities in sectors we find attractive,” said Clay Hunter, Chief Executive Officer of Broadview Group. “We’ve known and invested with Meaningful Partners’ principals for years, and this commitment simply memorializes and further solidifies the existing linkages, active collaboration, and frequent knowledge sharing between our firms. There’s no other team we know of that has approached building a firm in the thoughtful and differentiated way Jake Capps and Amin Maredia have with Meaningful Partners. Their deep belief that Purpose + Profit are inextricably linked aligns perfectly with our own culture and outlook, their network of true experts is unique in this space, and their insights into the consumer demand drivers shaping the food universe are unmatched.”

Jake Capps, Managing Partner of Meaningful Partners added, “We’ve worked with Clay and the Broadview team in various capacities for a long time, and we’ve known each other well for even longer. True partnership is everything to us, and the Broadview culture aligns perfectly with our own. The principals’ direct investing capabilities, food and agriculture operating expertise, and frankly just our desire to work closely with people we genuinely enjoy make them an ideal partner for us as we build Meaningful Partners.”

ABOUT BROADVIEW GROUP HOLDINGS
Broadview Group Holdings, LLC invests in and partners with successful business owners and growth-oriented leadership teams to help scale and create significant and sustainable value in commercial and industrial products, specialty distribution, industrial services and food and agriculture businesses. Our permanent capital base and long-term perspective ensure true alignment with our partners and portfolio companies. Broadview Group’s principals have decades of experience leading and scaling businesses and providing strategic insight and other expertise as executives, lead investors and board members in a variety of businesses and industries.

ABOUT MEANINGFUL PARTNERS
Meaningful Partners is a private equity firm based in Los Angeles, California that invests in purposeful consumer businesses that have earned customer trust and loyalty, demonstrate a commitment to all stakeholders and are led by management teams empowering positive purpose and performance. The firm is led by an experienced investor and operator management team that leverages an Expert Community of 45+ CEO/Founders and discipline experts with over 800+ years of collective experience who bring relevant domain expertise to help accelerate the growth and impact at our partner companies.

Contact: Alexander Kuhlman, akuhlman@broadviewgroup.com

SOURCE Broadview Group Holdings

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ –Meaningful Partners LLC (together with certain affiliates, “Meaningful”), a Los-Angeles  based private equity firm, announced today the completion of a strategic growth investment in Active Apparel Group (“AAG” or the “Company”), a leading, socially-responsible manufacturer of activewear and swimwear for both leisure/lifestyle and performance markets. Based in Brisbane, Australia with its US office in Los Angeles, CA, AAG proudly offers its customers a strategic end-to-end solution in the development and sourcing of active apparel products.

“Meaningful clearly shares our values and approach to business,” said Paul McCloskey, founder of AAG. “We are grateful to have found the Meaningful team who will support us with the resources to expand our business and better serve our partner brands. The Meaningful team collectively has decades of experience that will help guide AAG into its next phase of growth.”

AAG is committed to delivering cutting-edge, sustainable apparel solutions to its customers while providing its team members with a rewarding culture focused on personal development and teamwork. With multiple decades of experience in performance textile development and an in-depth knowledge of garment engineering and manufacturing, the Company offers an end-to-end suite of solutions for swim and activewear brands spanning product development and fabric sourcing to printing, embellishments and bulk production. AAG’s vertically integrated design, development and manufacturing solution is trusted by leading active and swimwear brands globally. This new investment will enable the Company to accelerate growth and expand its presence in both existing and new markets.

“We are excited by the opportunity to partner with the Active Apparel team in becoming the premier global activewear supplier,” said Jake Capps, Managing Partner at Meaningful Partners. “We look to invest in businesses with proven track records of success, experienced leadership teams committed to positive purpose and significant growth potential. AAG has shown all of these qualities. We look forward to building on this history of success.”

MinterEllison and Buchalter represented Meaningful Partners as legal counsel. AAG was advised by Jones Day on legal matters.

About Active Apparel:
Active Apparel Group is a leading, socially-responsible garment manufacturing group specializing in the production of activewear and swimwear for market leading international brands. The group is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia while the Company supplies to customers throughout the world including the United States, Australia, Europe, China and Canada. Active Apparel Group proudly provides its customers with a strategic end-to-end solution from development, sourcing and manufacturing to global delivery of garments.

About Meaningful Partners:
Meaningful Partners, with offices in Los Angeles, CA and Austin, TX, invests in purposeful consumer businesses that have earned customer trust and loyalty, demonstrate a commitment to all stakeholders and are led by management teams empowering positive purpose and performance. Meaningful Partners makes control and minority investments ranging from $10 million to $50+ million in lower-middle market and high growth companies. The firm is led by an experienced investor and operator management team that leverages an Expert Community of 45+ CEO/Founders and discipline experts with over 800+ years of collective experience who bring relevant domain expertise to help accelerate the growth and impact at our partner companies. More at https://meaningfulpartners.com.

SOURCE Meaningful Partners

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Sept. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Sugarbear Vitamin Care (“Sugarbear” or the “Company”), a Fort Lauderdale-based vegan beauty and wellness brand, announced today it has secured a strategic growth investment from an investor group comprised of Nexus Capital Management LP (“Nexus”) and Meaningful Partners LLC (“Meaningful”).

“We embarked on this journey six years ago by launching the first cruelty-free, plant-based ‘Hair Vitamin’ gummy with the goal to disrupt the vitamin industry, and believe it is the right time to bring on institutional partners to help accelerate our growth,” said Nicole Johnson, CEO of Sugarbear. “We are incredibly grateful to have found the Nexus and Meaningful team who support our drive and commitment to first-to-market innovations, premium ingredients and user-friendly customer-focused solutions. Nexus and Meaningful’s leadership team collectively has decades of experience that will help guide Sugarbear into the next phase of its growth. We are excited to get to work and look forward to bringing to market new products the Company has been developing over the last eighteen months.”

Sugarbear specializes in vegan vitamin-based solutions that are made in the U.S.A. with organic and plant-based ingredients. By leveraging its strong reputation for delivering premium, high-quality wellness solutions, Sugarbear plans to expand its product offering from gummies to additional vitamin-infused innovations, delivering a 360-degree approach to beauty and wellness for its customers. This new investment will support the Company’s execution of its strategic vision, including the expansion of its leading market position in hair and other functional supplements, as well as accelerated growth in domestic and international markets.

“We are excited by the opportunity to partner with Nicole and the Sugarbear team in supporting the Company’s continued success and evolution from a category-defining gummy vitamin brand into a more holistic beauty and wellness company,” said Michael Cohen, Partner at Nexus. “Nicole is a true visionary and inspirational founder, and we look forward to our partnership as she continues to redefine wellness/beauty from the inside-out through her innovative products.”

“Nicole and the Sugarbear team’s passion for bringing environmentally-friendly, high-quality products with a repeatable innovation process makes this an exciting partnership,” said Amin Maredia, Managing Partner at Meaningful Partners. “We look forward to supporting Nicole’s vision and bringing our collective operational experience to accelerate growth at Sugarbear.”

Kirkland & Ellis LLP represented Nexus and Meaningful Partners as legal counsel. Sugarbear was advised by Goodwin Proctor LLP on legal matters, and Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to the Company on the transaction.

About Sugarbear:

Sugarbear was founded in 2015 and was immediately successful with the introduction of its first-to-market, iconic blue bear ‘Hair Vitamin’ gummy, which has been the #1 gummy vitamin on Amazon since its Amazon launch in early 2016. Sugarbear has since expanded into Multivitamins and Sleep Vitamins, specializing in vegan, great-tasting and premium complex vitamin formulations that work. Sugarbear products are sold globally and can be found online on Sugarbearhair.com,SugarbearVitaminCare.com, and Amazon.com, as well as in retail stores through partners such as Ulta and Target.

About Nexus Capital Management LP:

Nexus is an alternative asset investment management company based in Los Angeles, California that was founded in 2013. Nexus employs a flexible investment mandate that focuses on long-term value creation by partnering with leading management teams and businesses. More at http://www.nexuslp.com.

About Meaningful Partners:

Meaningful Partners, with offices in Los Angeles, CA and Austin, TX focuses on partnering with purposeful consumer businesses with relevant and specific long-term consumer thematic trends. Meaningful Partners makes control and minority investments ranging from $10 million to $50+ million in lower-middle market and high growth companies, and is led by an experienced investor and operator management team. More at https://meaningfulpartners.com.

SOURCE Sugarbear Vitamin Care

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Meaningful Partners LLC (“Meaningful Partners”), a private equity firm based in Los Angeles, California, specializing in the consumer sector, announced the final closing of its debut fund, Meaningful Partners Dedicated Capital Vehicle LP (together with its related vehicles, the “Fund”), with $150 million of capital commitments.

Meaningful Partners secured commitments from a diversified investor group, comprising leading endowments, foundations, family offices and fund of funds. “We are humbled to have earned the trust and support of an exceptional group of sophisticated investors,” commented Jake Capps, Managing Partner of Meaningful Partners. “We are proud to have exceeded our hard cap and most importantly to have an aligned, thoughtful and value-added group of Limited Partners who support our mission to empower positive purpose while achieving best-in-class investment returns.”

Meaningful Partners announced the final closing of its debut fund with capital commitments of $150 Million.

“We are excited to be in a position to help build the companies of tomorrow and serve our partner company management teams by accelerating their growth and performance. Both Purpose + Profit are sacrosanct to us and we believe they are inextricably linked which continues to be proven out through data and outperformance of purposeful businesses,” added Managing Partner, Amin Maredia.

WHR Capital (i) acted as the exclusive placement agent and Buchalter served as legal counsel to the fund.

About Meaningful Partners

Meaningful Partners, with offices in Los Angeles, CA and Austin, TX focuses on partnering with purposeful consumer businesses with relevant and specific long-term thematic trends. Meaningful Partners makes control or minority investments ranging from $10 million to $50+ million in middle market (>$3 million in EBITDA) and high growth companies (>$10 million in revenue with visibility to near-term profitability) in a proven, repeatable and disciplined process, led by an experienced investor + operator management team.

Meaningful Partners has curated a unique 45 person Expert Community with over 800+ years of collective experience across a diverse range of domain expertise and sub sectors within the consumer space. This group adds significant value through sourcing proprietary deal flow, providing real time insights during due diligence and delivering discrete post transaction value creation. All in our Expert Community are investors in the firm.

Jake Capps has been a private equity investor for over two decades with a passion for the consumer sector. Prior to founding Meaningful Partners Jake worked at three large private equity firms. Jake has led or co-led investments in dozens of consumer companies deploying over $1.5bn of equity capital. Jake holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Amin Maredia has over two decades of experience working within the consumer sector, primarily as an operator with growth stage, private equity backed and Fortune 1000 companies. Prior to founding Meaningful Partners, Amin served as CEO of Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ:SFM). Over seven years, Amin helped lead the company from $600mm to $5bn in revenues, 4,000 to 30,000 employees and helped execute an initial public offering for the company in 2013. Prior to Sprouts, Amin served in key global strategic roles at Burger King Corporation. Amin attended the Harvard Business School Management Program and has an undergraduate degree from the University of Houston.

(i) WHR Capital is a division of Blue Sand Securities, a FINRA Member.

Little Rock, AR, – February 28, 2020 – Westrock Coffee Company, LLC today completed its previously announced [https://westrockcoffee.com/blogs/news/westrock-to-acquire-s-d-coffee-tea] agreement to acquire S&D Coffee & Tea from Cott Corporation (NYSE: COT; TSB: BCB). The transaction, valued at $405 million, creates the nation’s leading integrated coffee, tea, and extract company serving retailers, restaurants, convenience stores, commercial accounts, and the hospitality industry.

The newly combined business, Westrock Coffee Company, LLC, operates several US and international subsidiaries. 
The US-based service providers include Westrock Coffee Roasting in North Little Rock, AR, which supplies branded and
private label coffee to global retailers and hotel chains, and S&D Coffee & Tea, in Concord, NC, which is the US market leader in custom coffee roasting and service, tea blends, and extracts. These operating subsidiaries will continue to serve customers under their respective brand names for the foreseeable future and will remain located in their current facilities.

“We are very pleased to complete the transaction on schedule, and our integration process is under way,” said Scott Ford, Westrock Coffee Company co-founder and chief executive officer.  “We are focused on creating innovative, quality products for our customers while continuing our combined commitment to delivering superior customer service across the entire supply chain – from crop to cup.”

Westrock Coffee can import, process, roast, grind, and package more than 220 million pounds of coffee annually. The company employs more than 1,700 people globally and is a recognized pioneer in farmer sustainability practices and supply chain traceability.

As CEO, Ford leads the company’s management team, with support from former S&D President and CEO Ron Hinson, now serving as chairman emeritus. Hinson, a 41-year coffee industry veteran, will serve in an advisory role on industry issues, customer support, and product development.

“Our foundation is and will remain coffee, but we intend to continue to lead as the industry morphs beyond traditional hot coffee into cold brews, custom blends, and other extract-based options which appeal to a variety of beverage consumers at home, in restaurants, and across the hospitality industry,” Ford explained. “It’s an exciting time to be part of Westrock Coffee – we are building an even stronger and larger organization, one that is capable of having a meaningful impact on and in the lives of literally, millions of farmers around the world and where there will be a number of opportunities for job and career growth here in the US.”

BBH Capital Partners, a private equity strategy of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., The Stephens Group, and Meaningful Partners provided acquisition capital, along with Westrock Coffee’s existing investors.  Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal advisor to Westrock Coffee.

About Westrock Coffee Company

Westrock Coffee Company, LLC is the leading integrated coffee, tea, and extract service provider in the US, providing coffee sourcing and financing, supply chain management, roasting, packaging, and distribution services to retailers, restaurants, convenience stores, commercial accounts, and hospitality customers around the world. With offices in ten countries, the company sources coffee from 25 origin countries and provides service under both the Westrock Coffee and S&D Coffee & Tea brands.