Valley Information – Pete & Gerry’s egg distributor bought to personal fairness firms

Pete and Gerry’s Organics, the Monroe, N.H.-based marketer and distributor of natural and organic eggs and 1 of Grafton County’s most significant businesses, has been obtained by a private equity firm in California in a offer that founder Jesse Laflamme states will propel the company’s expansion and enable it “transcend” outside of the egg enterprise.

The sale, which Laflamme mentioned involved offering a “healthy majority” of his family’s equity in Pete and Gerry’s to Beverly Hills, Calif.-based mostly Butterfly Fairness LP and a minority stake to British Columbia Financial investment Management Corp., marks a important changeover for the relatives egg farm that Laflamme took in excess of from his mom and dad in 2000 and reworked into one particular of the country’s largest distributors of organic and natural eggs. Pete and Gerry’s now has a supplier network of 140 farms, 250 staff members, virtually $260 million in gross sales and a corporate jet.

Laflamme, who declined to go over the terms of the transaction, on Thursday cited both personalized and enterprise good reasons for the sale.

“After 21 yrs nonstop of undertaking this I’m at a juncture in my lifestyle where I want to do some other items and this will open up up some head house for that,” he explained.

At the exact time, “the organization has arrived at the scale of a countrywide model and we realized this is a tremendous instant when we could consider the enterprise and transcend it to other classes,” Laflamme stated.

But carrying out that, Laflamme explained, necessitates a lot of cash, more than it can tap from its regular banks, and Butterfly and BCI can quickly offer individuals means.

As part of the sale. Laflamme stated he’s relinquished the CEO reins to Erik Drake, who joined Pete and Gerry’s as main running officer in 2016 following promoting positions at Late July Treats, Stonyfield Farm and Johnson & Johnson.

Laflamme, who will remain on the board and turn into a strategic adviser to the organization, mentioned the sale of manage means that he is now freed up to do what he enjoys most: being an entrepreneur and coming up with new businesses.

Butterfly, started in 2017 by two previous associates at Goldman Sachs, specializes in making investments in the agribusiness and food items sector and at the moment has $1.6 billion under management, in accordance to filings with the Securities and Trade Commission. The firm’s portfolio involves protein drink maker Orgain, striped bass sea farmer Pacifico Aquaculture and speedy-everyday cafe chains Modern Sector Eatery and Lemonade.

“We think (Pete and Gerry’s) long run is exceptionally vivid as the current market leader in the top quality egg group,” Butterfly co-founder Adam Waglay mentioned in a statement.

Regardless of the reputation of non-public fairness firms that strip-and-flip the corporations they acquire, Laflamme stated Butterfly aligns with Pete and Gerry’s traditional company values — the firm was the first egg distributor to be granted Qualified B-Company, signing up for the ranks of the Higher Valley’s Mascoma Lender and King Arthur Baking Co. — and he’s trustful they will be great stewards of the business enterprise.

“I was a single of those persons,” Laflamme said relating to hesitancy above non-public fairness companies. But he reported Butterfly is “oriented toward the identical environmental and social governance” challenges that attained Pete and Gerry’s B-Corp. standing, which denotes a company’s commitment to good company citizenship.

“They get agriculture. They get farmers,” Laflamme said.

Pete and Gerry’s employs about 80 people at its demonstration farm and egg processing facility in Monroe, but the bulk of its staff are at a processing facility in Greencastle, Pa., and a modest executive personnel at an workplace at Centerra in Lebanon.

Contrary to prevalent notion, Pete and Gerry’s doesn’t function hen houses to deliver eggs alone in its place, it contracts with a community of impartial farms, many of them in the Mid-Atlantic states. The farms, which elevate and control the hens less than Pete and Gerry’s protocols to qualify for the “organic” and “humane” labels, ship their eggs to the company’s two processing services for sorting, cleansing and packaging. The eggs are then transported to marketplaces around the nation beneath the Pete and Gerry’s title and sister brands Nellie’s, Carol’s, and Think about.

The company’s advancement has been phenomenal: In 2017, revenues were $177 million, in 2018 about $197 million and Laflamme estimates this yr will get to $260 million. Pete and Gerry’s has benefited from two trends driving the egg market: the rise in natural eggs and new rules that need farmers to run “cage-free” hen-laying units.

But the fast advancement also places stress on Pete and Gerry’s to introduce “brand extensions” and enter new markets to sustain momentum. In modern yrs the company has released packaged difficult-boiled eggs and liquid egg whites, two rising segments fueled by the rise in packaged new foods.

Laflamme explained Butterfly will have the funds for extending the Pete and Gerry’s natural manufacturer into new principles — a Pete and Gerry’s egg breakfast sandwich is a person idea less than consideration. And now that Pete and Gerry’s has recognized by itself as the No. 1 promoting organic egg manufacturer in the place, the standing can be a “jumping off point” to expand the name into other protein-dependent organic and natural products.

“Butterfly is so intense on growing this company, which is fantastic to see,” Laflamme said.

Call John Lippman at [email protected].