Wintrust Receivables Finance closed a $4,750,000 line of credit to a Southeast-based manufacturer and distributor of natural pet food. In addition to pet food, the company also has a broad portfolio of pet and wellness products for dogs and cats including treats, dental chews, and supplements. The company sells its products domestically through a number of major retailers including Amazon, Chewy, Petco, and PetSmart.
   
The company had experienced declining financial performance during the previous fiscal year due to a combination of weak internal expense controls and poor management. This led to the company violating multiple financial covenants with their incumbent lender. Earlier in the year, the management team was replaced with a more experienced group who immediately started to reduce expenses, improve internal controls, and focus on growing sales in their most profitable product categories. The new management team quickly realized that they would need to access additional liquidity, while replacing the incumbent lender, to fully execute their turnaround plan.

WRF was able to provide the company with a new $4,750,000 accounts receivable line of credit to refinance the existing bank debt. The WRF line provided an aggressive advance rate and no financial covenant structure to give management the access to liquidity and the flexibility they needed execute their plan.

According to Jason LeuVoy, Wintrust Business Credit National Head of Originations, “We were immediately impressed with the new management team’s ability to highlight the problems of the past and give us concrete steps that had been taken to improve future financial performance.” WRF Executive Vice President John Marrinson added, “Our WRF team has successfully financed a number of turnarounds across a broad range of industries and we have every reason to believe this will be another in a long line of success stories.”