Capital One announced that it has formed a national food and beverage specialty banking team. The group, led by Paul Baisley, serves both private, public and private equity owned clients across the entire food value chain, including producers, processors, manufacturers, distributors and retailers, and provides a broad range of corporate banking products and services such as corporate lending, treasury management, commercial card and more.

Capital One’s food and beverage specialty banking team is primarily based in Chicago and works with clients throughout the country. The team consists of seasoned relationship managers, industry experts and a dedicated and centralized underwriting team to ensure speed and certainty of execution. 

“Capital One has been focused on the food and beverage industry for a number of years and we look forward to continuing to serve and grow with our many customers in this dynamic and innovative space,” said Baisley. “We made the decision to formalize this vertical so that we can better serve these clients by combining our extensive expertise in the industry with a robust, trustworthy platform.”

Baisley joined Capital One in early 2017 and has since been working to grow Capital One’s presence in the food and beverage space. Previously, he spent 15 years building GE Capital’s Food and Beverage Group, as well as 10 years as an ingredient food broker. He is also a managing partner for a family farm in Decatur, IL that grows corn and soybeans. Since Baisley’s arrival, industry veterans Rich Collins and Curt Hart have joined the team as well as industry analyst Colin Guheen, among numerous others.

“Capital One is known for providing deep expertise and customized solutions to help companies achieve their goals and navigate the changing needs of their industries,” said Bob McCarrick, Head of Middle Market Banking at Capital One. “Our food and beverage specialty team provides additional value to their customers by understanding the industry nuances and loan structures common in the sector, which leads to better credit outcomes for all parties involved.”

Capital One has specialty banking teams focused on healthcare, financial institutions, commercial real estate, government contracting, technology, media and telecom, among others.