August 2006
ASHEVILLE, NC (August 3, 2006) - Earth Fare, a supermarket retailer with 13 stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, announced that it has completed a recapitalization of the Company in which Monitor Clipper Partners made an equity investment. Monitor Clipper manages over $1.5 billion of capital and makes private equity investments. The recapitalization will enable Earth Fare to expand its store base throughout the Southeastern U.S. Earth Fare was advised by investment banking firm Hadley Partners (www.hadleypartners.com)
“For over 30 years, Earth Fare has been committed to providing our communities with higher quality products and a superior shopping experience,” said Mike Cianciarulo, Chief Executive Officer of Earth Fare. “This recapitalization, of which Monitor Clipper’s investment is a key component, will help us expand our presence throughout the Southeast.” Charles Yoon, a Principal with Monitor Clipper, added “we are highly enthusiastic about teaming with Earth Fare since their stores are at the forefront of the food retailing industry. Earth Fare is well-positioned to benefit from consumers’ shifting preference for better and healthier food and consumer product options.”
According to Datamonitor, the organic food sector is growing at a rate of approximately 20% annually, compared to just 3% for conventional foods.
Regarding the transaction, Mr. Cianciarulo added “our shareholders and employees are very pleased with this development as it validates the strength of our brand and the overall momentum of our business. We appreciate Hadley Partners’s involvement since they skillfully advised us throughout the transaction process and delivered a very favorable outcome for our company; in addition, they were instrumental in forging our partnership with Monitor Clipper.”
About Hadley Partners, Inc. (www.hadleypartners.com)
Founded in 1999, Hadley Partners always seeks to provide the highest-quality merger & acquisition advisory, private placement and financial advisory services. We have a world-class team of veteran bankers that bring Wall Street experience to middle-market and emerging growth companies. Our goal is to develop relationships of trust with the leaders of these companies and with investors that pursue investment opportunities in such companies. We provide our services in a fair and flexible manner, and we always put our clients’ interests first. Hadley Partners is a registered broker-dealer, and a member of the National Association of Securities Dealers and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation.
About Earth Fare (www.earthfare.com)
Earth Fare was founded in Asheville, North Carolina in 1975 and has grown into a premier chain of all-natural supermarkets located in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. All Earth Fare supermarkets provide customers with superior food offerings including fresh locally grown organic produce, artisan products such as raw milk cheeses and specialty wines, traditional hard crusted bakery breads and pastries, as well as antibiotic-free and hormone-free meats and poultry, and sustainably harvested seafood.
About Monitor Clipper Partners (www.monitorclipper.com)
Monitor Clipper Partners is a private equity investment firm formed in 1998 by The Monitor Group, a leading group of advisory businesses that has at its core one of the world’s largest strategy consulting firms, and The Clipper Group, an experienced private equity investment firm. We seek to make private equity investments in middle-market companies in North America and Europe to which we can add significant value through the combined skills of our principals and our privileged access to the proprietary resources of The Monitor Group. MCP currently manages over $1.5 billion of capital and has invested over $825 million since making its first investment in February 1999.
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