New Harbor Capital Portfolio Company FoodPharma Completes Dividend Recapitalization
New Harbor Capital portfolio company FoodPharma (“FoodPharma”, “the Company”) announced today that it has completed a dividend recapitalization with incumbent lenders Capital Southwest and Hancock Whitney.
FoodPharma is a leading contract developer and manufacturer of functional foods and dietary supplements based in Sante Fe Springs and Long Beach, California. The Company offers formulation and manufacturing services with capabilities in soft chews, protein and nutrition bars, cups, and other confectionary-like products. The Company leverages a large and growing portfolio of proprietary formulas and recipes as well as in-house research, development, and formulation capabilities to deliver innovative, functional food products to its customers. FoodPharma serves customers across leading consumer health, private label, and specialty brands, especially in practitioner-driven channels like medically supervised weight loss and bariatric nutrition.
New Harbor, Capital Southwest, and Hancock Whitney have a long track record of working together to support lower-middle market, high-growth, founder-owned businesses as they seek to realize their full potential.
“Glen and the FoodPharma team have been exceptional partners, and we are excited to be recognizing some of the value generated from their efforts and capitalizing the business for its next phase of growth and development,” said Bo Mlnarik, Principal at New Harbor Capital. “We also appreciate the continued partnership with Capital Southwest and Hancock Whitney and look forward to the next phase of our journey together with the business.”
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the rapid growth and adoption we are seeing in the market today for the unique and delicious nutrition product formats that FoodPharma designs and manufactures, especially our soft chews,” added Brent Eck, CEO of FoodPharma. “Our growing list of customers includes some of the largest and fastest-growing VMS brands today, who share our vision of creating nutritional products that not only make consumers feel better but that they genuinely look forward to taking.”
Reed Smith LLP provided counsel and advice to New Harbor Capital, and Kroll, LLC (operating through its Duff & Phelps Opinions Practice) provided solvency opinion work to the Company. Capital Southwest and Hancock Whitney provided financing support and were advised by Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP and Stites & Harbison PLLC, respectively.
About FoodPharma
FoodPharma is a science-based developer and manufacturer of functional foods, including dietary supplement soft chews, nutrition bars, and other novel plant-based food delivery systems. The Company leverages a large portfolio of proprietary formulas and recipes as well as in-house research, development, and formulation capabilities to deliver innovative, functional food products to its customers. It was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Sante Fe Springs, California. For more information, visit www.foodpharma.com.
About Capital Southwest Corporation
Capital Southwest Corporation (Nasdaq: CSWC) is a Dallas, Texas-based, internally managed business development company with approximately $1.5 billion in investments at fair value as of March 31, 2024. Capital Southwest is a middle market lending firm focused on supporting the acquisition and growth of middle market businesses with $5 million to $45 million investments across the capital structure, including first lien, second lien and non-control equity co-investments. As a public company with a permanent capital base, Capital Southwest has the flexibility to be creative in its financing solutions and to invest to support the growth of its portfolio companies over long periods of time.
About Hancock Whitney Corporation
Hancock Whitney Corporation (Nasdaq: HWC) is a financial institution that was founded in 1899 and has $35 billion in assets with bank offices and financial centers in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee. HWC offers comprehensive financial products and services, including traditional and online banking; commercial and small business banking; private banking; trust and investment services; mortgage services; and healthcare banking. The healthcare banking group is located in Nashville, TN and has a nearly $400 million portfolio of loans to private equity sponsor-backed platforms within the $1.9 billion overall healthcare portfolio. The healthcare team specializes in senior secured credit facilities and senior / sub facilities for private equity firms focused on investments in the healthcare space looking for acquisition financing, recapitalizations, working capital needs and other financial products to support the growth of their platform companies.
Past performance is not indicative of future results. This is not intended as a solicitation and investors must be accredited in order to invest in any New Harbor vehicle.