Trive Capital has made an investment in NutriFresh Services, a cold-chain logistics services provider.
NutriFresh’s portfolio of services includes frozen and cold storage, kit assembly, and parcel shipping optimization and coordination. Customers of the company include e-commerce based direct-to-consumer food and beverage brands.
NutriFresh operates a 140,000 sq. ft. storage facility near New York City in Edison, New Jersey, with more than 3,000 frozen pallet positions (at -14 °F) and more than 4,000 pallet positions of refrigerated storage (at +36 °F). The company’s Edison location allows for one and two-day ground service to more than 80% of the US population. In addition, NutriFresh maintains a national network of third-party logistics providers in Philadelphia, Northern California, Southern California, Kansas City, Dallas, and Atlanta that it uses to expand its geographic reach and speed of delivery.
NutriFresh also operates three non-thermal high-pressure processing (HPP) machines – with a capacity of 100 million pounds a year – that preserve and sterilize food to extend shelf life and reduce waste. The company was founded in 2014 and is led by CEO Guy Ironi.
“NutriFresh’s high-quality service and national, perishable turnkey capabilities have enabled us to become a growth catalyst partner to our customers,” said Mr. Ironi. “The management team and shareholders of NutriFresh look forward to continuing our mission, building an even better and more robust, best-in-class, national platform with a partner that can provide additional resources and capital. Trive’s collaborative approach and deep operational experience will undoubtedly help us accelerate our expansion, continue developing cutting edge technology, and better support our customers on a national level.”
Trive’s investment in NutriFresh was made as part of its structured capital strategy that provides both debt and equity to middle-market companies facing a capital need to finance growth.
“It is a dynamic time in both the food & beverage and logistic sectors as consumer preferences increasingly shift towards direct-to-consumer brands and e-commerce,” said Shravan Thadani, a managing director at Trive. “NutriFresh’s service-first approach to logistics and innovation, coupled with management’s commitment to its customers and employees, provides the right framework to capitalize on this growing customer demand.”
Trive invests from $10 million to $150 million of debt or equity in North America-headquartered companies with revenues of $40 million to $1.5 billion. The firm is industry-agnostic but has specific experience across a range of sectors including aerospace and defense, automotive, building products, business services, chemicals, and consumer goods. The Dallas-headquartered firm was founded in 2012 by Conner Searcy and Chris Zugaro.
“We believe management has built a truly differentiated and best-in-class offering at NutriFresh – one we are looking forward to help grow with additional resources in the coming years,” said Mr. Zugaro. “We are excited to invest alongside the existing shareholders and to support the company and its customer base through this critical growth phase with both organic and inorganic growth on the horizon.”
TM Capital was the financial advisor to the shareholders of NutriFresh on this transaction.
© 2021 Private Equity Professional | March 12, 2021