Food & Beverage Archives

Food processing company stabilizes operations, raises cash, and increases sales

Food processing company stabilizes operations, raises cash, and increases sales Client Situation A food processing and consumer packaged-goods company was growing rapidly but experiencing negative cash flow and violating loan covenants. This triggered the company’s lender to place the company in its workout group. One obvious cause was significant delays in the buildout of a new manufacturing facility, needed because the company struggled to fulfill sales orders using existing facilities. The [...]

Food processing company stabilizes operations, raises cash, and increases salesLisa Clarke2020-07-14T06:39:38+00:00

Wholesale Beer Distributor Seeks Restructuring Help to Avoid Bankruptcy

Wholesale Beer Distributor Seeks Restructuring Help to Avoid Bankruptcy Client Situation A wholesale beer distributor was acquired in a highly leveraged deal. A $25 million senior loan and revolving line of credit facility were obtained based on an expected level of EBITDA that was supposed to increase over time to lower the debt leverage and pay down the loan. Soon afterward, the company was not meeting its loan covenants [...]

Wholesale Beer Distributor Seeks Restructuring Help to Avoid BankruptcyAnn2020-06-23T20:15:32+00:00

Consumer Packaged Food Company Requests In-Depth Review of its Finance Organization and a Roadmap of Recommendations to Achieve Excellence

Consumer Packaged Food Company Requests In-Depth Review of its Finance Organization and a Roadmap of Recommendations to Achieve Excellence Client Situation A family-owned grower and producer of organic consumer packaged food products brought in a new CFO following the departure of a predecessor with 10 years of company experience. The new CFO encountered several deficiencies in current accounting processes including lack of inventory reconciliations and inadequate accruals for trade [...]

Consumer Packaged Food Company Requests In-Depth Review of its Finance Organization and a Roadmap of Recommendations to Achieve ExcellenceAnn2020-07-06T05:35:50+00:00

Mentoring the Technology and Cyber Leader in a Public Company Pre-Acquisition

Mentoring the Technology and Cyber Leader in a Public Company Pre-Acquisition Client Situation A $250 million publicly reported food and beverage company suffered the loss of their technology and risk leader just as the company was planning an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation, was waiting word on potential acquisition by a major shareholder, and was working to deliver strong compliance results in financial process verification and improvements to their [...]

Mentoring the Technology and Cyber Leader in a Public Company Pre-AcquisitionAnn2020-06-23T20:22:13+00:00

Specialty Retail Bakery Restructures to a Franchise Model and Achieves EBITDA and Valuation Improvements

Specialty Retail Bakery Restructures to a Franchise Model and Achieves EBITDA and Valuation Improvements Client Situation This company owned and operated 300-plus retail specialty bakery locations throughout the United States, principally located in retail shopping malls. Mall and customer traffic were declining due to discount retailers and fear of terrorism. Store profitability was adversely impacted and the overhead burden to maintain area and regional management to oversee operations of [...]

Specialty Retail Bakery Restructures to a Franchise Model and Achieves EBITDA and Valuation ImprovementsAnn2020-01-15T00:21:17+00:00

In-Depth Analyses of Manufacturing Process and Costs Leads to Improved Cash Flow and Growth Capability

In-Depth Analyses of Manufacturing Process and Costs Leads to Improved Cash Flow and Growth Capability Client Situation A newly formed company in the business of manufacturing and distributing nutritional bars was acquired from a protein supplement company. Because of manufacturing costs and limited credit availability, the company was experiencing constrained cash flow. Solution The company engaged an experienced financial executive, now a NextLevel team member, to serve as interim [...]

In-Depth Analyses of Manufacturing Process and Costs Leads to Improved Cash Flow and Growth CapabilityAnn2020-01-15T00:21:31+00:00

Food processing company stabilizes operations, raises cash, and increases sales

Food processing company stabilizes operations, raises cash, and increases sales Client Situation A food processing and consumer packaged-goods company was growing rapidly but experiencing negative cash flow and violating loan covenants. This triggered the company’s lender to place the company in its workout group. One obvious cause was significant delays in the buildout of a new manufacturing facility, needed because the company struggled to fulfill sales orders using existing [...]

Food processing company stabilizes operations, raises cash, and increases salesAnn2020-01-15T00:25:25+00:00

Transforming the Business Model of a Commodity Based Food & Beverage Manufacturer

Transforming the Business Model of a Commodity Based Food & Beverage Manufacturer Client Situation A publicly traded manufacturer of alcohol and naturally derived specialty ingredients used primarily in food, beverages and household products had for numerous years been primarily a commodity based business, struggling as commodity market prices and raw materials prices fluctuated wildly. By reviewing and analyzing the business and creating more transparency in the financial reporting system, [...]

Transforming the Business Model of a Commodity Based Food & Beverage ManufacturerD Barka2020-01-15T21:43:47+00:00

Packaging Company Adopts Lean Manufacturing Concepts

Packaging Company Adopts Lean Manufacturing Concepts Client Situation A multi divisional packaging supplier to the consumer products industry faced significant business issues surrounding inventory valuation, cost of sales, inventory management and production planning. The company produced 230 million thermoformed pieces, 311 million paperboard pieces and 21.5 million contract packed items per year. They needed to address key customer requirements surrounding demand collaboration, order visibility and inventory management. In addition [...]

Packaging Company Adopts Lean Manufacturing ConceptsD Barka2020-01-15T21:44:27+00:00

Troubled Acquisition Turnaround through Analytics and Teamwork

Troubled Acquisition Turnaround through Analytics and Teamwork Client Situation A leading multi-national packaged foods company pursued a growth strategy of acquiring brands and product lines to plug into its strong sales and distribution infrastructure. The client acquired the #2 brand of canned soup, which held a 10 percent share of domestic canned soup sales, far below the largest competitor’s market leading 80 percent share. Given the relatively weak market [...]

Troubled Acquisition Turnaround through Analytics and TeamworkD Barka2020-01-15T21:47:19+00:00