Siena Lending Group LLC announced the completion of a $12.0 million revolving credit and term loan facility for Specialty Bakers LLC. The facility was used to finance Specialty’s acquisition of certain assets of the former Bake One, Inc. and to support Specialty’s working capital needs. Specialty is a portfolio company of Stonebridge Partners (Stonebridge), a private equity firm based in White Plains, NY.

Headquartered in Marysville, PA and founded in 1901, Specialty produces and distributes bakery products such as dessert shells, ladyfingers, French twirls and angel food cakes that are sold mainly to supermarket chains and delivered to their in-store bakeries.

In 2018, a fire destroyed Specialty’s pie production plant resulting in the loss of approximately 70% of its revenues. Specialty and Stonebridge identified key equipment and related assets of Bake One, a Smyrna, GA based bakery company,  as an attractive platform to expand Specialty’s product lines. Bake One leased a 130,000 sq. ft. production facility with substantial recent investments in equipment capable of producing a complimentary product line to Specialty’s.  As the ability to acquire selected assets of Bake One had enormous potential, Stonebridge approached Siena to complete the financing on a very tight time frame. The transaction closed at the end of February 2019, within 24 days of the initial term sheet.

Stephen Fuscaldo, Director of Siena, said, “Siena is very pleased to be able to provide the acquisition financing for Stonebridge to allow Specialty to grow their top line sales and once again become the profitable company it was before the fire in 2018. The financing also allowed Specialty the opportunity to hire some of the former employees of Bake One which is a great result for the community.” 

Stephen A. Hanna, Managing Director of Stonebridge, said, “Siena really came through for us as Bake One equipment and related assets were attractive to a number of large bakery players, necessitating less than a month to close the deal. Siena delivered on what they proposed and in the time frame we needed to get the deal done. It is an extremely professional and well-oiled machine.”