STAMFORD, Conn., July 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Kidd & Company, LLC (“KCO”) and T-street Capital, LLC (“T-street”) announced today that they have partnered to create a Direct to Consumer (“DTC”) e-commerce strategy by forming Brand Holdings, LLC, a holding company focused on acquiring DTC e-commerce companies with a focus on health and wellness, sports nutrition, beauty and functional foods. KCO and T-Street announced the completion of the first acquisition, Dr. Emil Nutrition (“Dr. Emil” or the “Company”). Dr. Emil is a leading provider of a portfolio of health and wellness supplements as well as sports nutrition products for both the enthusiast athlete and everyday consumer backed by the scientific background of Dr. Emil Hodzovic. The Company is experiencing remarkable growth and has amassed a loyal following by leveraging the brand’s science-backed approach to nutritional supplements.

KCO and T-street will partner with Dr. Emil Hodzovic, the medical doctor and nutrition/wellness expert behind the brand, and industry veteran Jeff Hennion, who will serve as the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Brand Holdings and Dr. Emil Nutrition. Hennion’s prior experience includes his leadership role as Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing & E-Commerce Officer of GNC, as well as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Dick’s Sporting Goods. Hennion also served as Chief Executive Officer of JEGS Automotive, a specialty automotive aftermarket company, where he led the transition from a catalog company to a DTC e-commerce brand. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Briggs & Stratton, is Chairman of the Advisory Board at Listrak, is the co-Founder and Managing Partner of Woodside Ventures, Inc., a leading, high growth e-commerce digital agency, and is an advisor to a number of e-commerce and technology companies. Hennion’s decades of expertise in marketing and e-commerce will be beneficial as KCO and T-street continue to build Dr. Emil into a premier, all-natural health, wellness, and sports nutrition supplement franchise.

Jeff Hennion commented, “The DTC e-commerce space is growing substantially, especially given changing consumer behavior during this pandemic and the shift in marketing mix moving forward, and we are excited about the opportunity to create a portfolio of DTC e-commerce brands with a focus on growth. Dr. Emil Nutrition has tremendous momentum because it offers natural, clean products and has successfully developed a broad portfolio of science-backed formulations to serve the growing needs of a diverse group of customers.”

Dr. Emil Hodzovic commented, “My goal is to help people achieve their health, wellness and nutrition goals – and this is why I helped to create Dr. Emil Nutrition originally. I look forward to working with Jeff, KCO and T-street to enhance the Dr. Emil Nutrition brand, further develop the product line, and build a deeper relationship with our customer base.”

The U.S. nutritional supplement market is growing at a robust rate, with the sports nutrition segment poised for the most significant growth as the market expands to include a significantly broader array of customers. While historically e-commerce has been a surprisingly small share of supplement sales, its share of the overall market is expected to double by 2022. Specifically, sports nutrition products sold through e-commerce will continue to offer the highest growth potential for the future of the industry.

Gerry DeBiasi, a Partner at KCO, commented, “The market for nutritional supplements is undergoing a momentous shift as e-commerce continues to play an increasingly critical role in consumer purchasing behavior. Dr. Emil has demonstrated proven success with online sales and is well positioned to benefit from these industry trends. We aim to grow the brand significantly going forward, as well as explore opportunities to leverage the DTC space and grow Brand Holdings.”

Dale Cheney, Managing Partner at T-street, added, “Dr. Emil Nutrition has built a remarkable business on a foundation of improving people’s lives through innovation in health, wellness, and sports nutrition products for the everyday consumer. We look forward to a strong partnership with KCO and Jeff Hennion as we continue to build Dr. Emil Nutrition into the leading franchise for health & wellness with a focus on sports nutrition, beauty and functional foods.”

About Kidd & CompanyKidd & Company, LLC (KCO), based in Old Greenwich, CT, is the private equity investment arm of the Kidd Family Office. KCO traces its roots to 1976 when the firm’s founding partner, William Kidd, made his first private equity investment. Today, KCO sponsors control equity investments in the lower middle market where the complementary skills and experience of the firm’s partners can be applied to create significant value over time. KCO implements its thesis-driven approach to power above-market growth in revenue and earnings, both organically and through accretive acquisitions. The diverse skill set of the firm’s partners allows KCO to bring management, operational, sales and marketing, corporate finance, and M&A expertise to bear to substantially increase the total value of its investments. For more information, visit www.kiddcompany.com.

About T-street CapitalT-street is an independent investment firm whose primary mission is to partner with founders and management teams to support the growth and strategic development of small to mid-size businesses focused on emerging consumer product brands. The team has a diverse background of consumer investing and operating expertise that can be supportive in providing a flexible and tailored equity solution for accelerated expansion. T-street’s consumer-focused categories include, food & beverage, health & wellness, active lifestyle, fitness & nutrition, leisure & entertainment, and beauty & personal care. T-street was founded in 2013 by the General Partner, Dale Cheney. For more information on T-street, please visit www.t-street.com.

Media Contact: Dale Cheney, [email protected]

SOURCE T-street Capital, LLC

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STAMFORD, Conn., March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — T-street Capital, LLC (“T-street”) announced today that it has completed a follow-on investment in popular healthy snack company, That’s It Nutrition, LLC (“That’s it.®”). That’s it.® is an innovative and authentic healthy snack company dedicated to using simple and easy ingredients made from real plant foods, and in some cases, organic dark chocolate. The Company provides a broad offering of on-the-go fruit and vegetable snacks using only natural, non-GMO, preservative-free, and allergen-free ingredients and nothing else. T-street’s follow-on investment will be used to support the Company’s remarkable growth and immediate expansion opportunities.

Dale Cheney, General Partner at T-street, stated, “The Company has tremendous momentum because it offers what consumers need. Better-for-you snacks provide a stress-free solution for busy lifestyles because they offer consumers a portable and convenient way to eat healthier.” Cheney continued, “Lior and his exceptional team at That’s it.® are at the forefront of consumer behavior and natural foods innovation by providing organic, gluten-free, and plant-based snacks with superior and clean nutritional profiles.”

Lior Lewensztain, CEO of That’s it.®, commented, “Our partnership with T-street has been very successful because they share a passion for our brand and truly support our strategy and vision for the future.” Lior added, “We appreciate their expertise in developing emerging consumer product brands and we look forward to the ongoing partnership as our Company continues to innovate within the natural foods category and expand our product offering both domestically and internationally.”

About T-street Capital
T-street is an independent investment firm whose primary mission is to partner with founders and management teams to support the growth and strategic development of small to mid-size businesses focused on emerging consumer product brands. The team has a diverse background of consumer investing and operating expertise that can be supportive in providing a flexible and tailored equity solution for accelerated expansion. T-street’s consumer-focused categories include, food & beverage, health & wellness, active lifestyle, fitness & nutrition, leisure & entertainment, and beauty & personal care. T-street was founded in 2013 by the General Partner, Dale Cheney. For more information on T-street, please visit www.t-street.com.

Media Contact: Dale Cheney, [email protected]

SOURCE T-street Capital, LLC

STAMFORD, Conn., Feb. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — T-street Capital, LLC (“T-street”), a consumer-focused growth equity firm, announced today that Greg Peterson has joined T-street as a Vice President. Peterson will play a key role in supporting T-street’s continued growth and strategy of providing a flexible and tailored equity solution to the most promising entrepreneur-owned companies focused on emerging consumer product brands.

Dale L. Cheney, Managing Partner of T-street, commented, “We are thrilled to have an experienced professional like Greg join our team at T-street. Greg has developed an impressive track record during his time at Goldman Sachs and his transaction experience with premier clients will be immediately accretive to T-street. He will play a vital role in driving value in new and existing portfolio companies and supporting T-street’s future fundraising initiatives.”

Prior to joining T-street, Peterson was an Investment Banking Associate at Goldman Sachs in New York, completing a variety of transactions within the Global Natural Resources Group. Peterson began his career in the Investment Management Division at Goldman Sachs in New York. Peterson received a B.A. in Economics and Accounting from the College of the Holy Cross.

About T-street Capital
T-street is an independent investment firm whose primary mission is to partner with founders and management teams to support the growth and strategic development of small to mid-size businesses focused on emerging consumer product brands. The team has a diverse background of consumer investing and operating expertise that can be supportive in providing a flexible and tailored equity solution for accelerated expansion. T-street’s consumer-focused categories include, food & beverage, health & wellness, active lifestyle, fitness & nutrition, and beauty & personal care. For more information on T-street, please visit www.t-street.com.

Contact:
Dale Cheney
[email protected]

NEW YORK, June 19, 2109 /PRNewswire/ — T-street Capital, LLC (“T-street”) announced today that it has made an additional investment into its portfolio company Simplex – Infrastructure Solutions, LLC (“Simplex”) in order to complete the acquisition of Dayton Superior ‘s Paving Division (“Dayton”). This acquisition establishes Simplex as the leading manufacturer and supplier of highway infrastructure products and solutions throughout North America, and successfully positions the company for further expansion into ancillary products and services.

Dale L. Cheney, Managing Partner of T-street, and Sarah Bazey, Founder and President of Simplex, have assembled an accomplished board of directors with the addition of Jeffrey Hanes, former CEO of Carter-Waters, Steve Morrey, former CEO of Dayton Superior, and Mark Kaler who will take the helm as CEO to spearhead the integration. Cheney will serve as Chairman of the Board.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity to bring together the two most dominant players in the industry, and with such complimentary business models. We are integrating Simplex’s best-in-class business development team and West Coast dominance, with Dayton’s industry-leading manufacturing capabilities and Midwest and East Coast dominance,” said Cheney. “Simplex is the only coast-to-coast and cradle-to-grave manufacturer and supplier of specialty reinforcing steel for concrete paving infrastructure in the United States.”

Bazey added, “The company’s product innovation and quality are unparalleled in the industry. Simplex’s robust distribution and industry-leading manufacturing operations will allow flexibility to meet the demands of contractors and to provide consistent quality assurance for federal and state DOTs.” The acquisition and combination with Dayton creates a combined footprint of 450,000 square feet under roof and 25 acres of capacity across four locations in Ontario, CA; Carlyle, IL; Kankakee, IL; and Minneapolis, MN.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity to bring together the two most dominant players in the industry, and with such complimentary business models. We are integrating Simplex’s best-in-class business development team and West Coast dominance, with Dayton’s industry-leading manufacturing capabilities and Midwest and East Coast dominance,” said Cheney. “Simplex is the only coast-to-coast and cradle-to-grave manufacturer and supplier of specialty reinforcing steel for concrete paving infrastructure in the United States.”

NEW YORK, June 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — T-street Capital, LLC (“T-street”) announced today that it has completed the spinout of a private equity portfolio from a well-established publicly traded commercial bank. T-street acquired the private equity holdings from the bank’s affiliated small business investment company fund and raised a new $75.0 million committed fund to continue its focus on growth equity investments. Dale L. Cheney, one of the managing partners of the bank’s small business investment company fund, will continue as the managing general partner of T-street Opportunity Fund I, L.P. (“Fund I”).

The Limited Partners in Fund I are led by sophisticated institutional investors, Committed Advisors and Timber Bay Partners. Mr. Cheney commented, “We are grateful for the strong support from our investor base and look forward to delivering strong returns as we grow the portfolio.”

T-street will continue the strategy of providing a flexible and tailored equity solution to high-growth, entrepreneur-owned companies in the consumer products and specialty manufacturing sectors. Mr. Cheney further commented, “We prefer to work with entrepreneurs because they have tremendous passion and great vision. Every successful entrepreneur has a unique story that we admire, and we can be supportive in building a platform for accelerated expansion without compromising the core values of the company.”

Mr. Cheney began his career at Goldman Sachs after completing his MBA at Harvard Business School. Following his career at Goldman, he was an investment professional at Citicorp Venture Capital where he also served as interim Chief Executive Officer of a distressed portfolio company and successfully executed a turnaround. Mr. Cheney launched the bank’s private equity fund in 2016 now preceded by T-street.

About T-street Capital
T-street is an independent growth equity firm that works in partnership with founders and management teams to grow their businesses through a combination of capital investment, acquisitions, and other opportunistic and strategic initiatives. We can do both minority and control investments in lower middle market companies based in North America. We focus on three sectors: consumer products, food & beverage, and specialty manufacturing. We generally look for platform companies with EBITDA of $3 million to $15 million. For more information, please visit our website at www.t-street.com.

About Committed Advisors
Committed Advisors is an independent private equity firm with over USD 3.0 billion of discretionary committed capital under management focused on secondaries, co-investments and primaries. Founded in 2010, the firm is headquartered in Paris with affiliate offices in New York and Singapore. The team has completed in excess of 100 transactions over the last 9 years, providing a broad range of solutions to investors and general partners seeking liquidity or new options for their private equity assets. To learn more, please visit www.committedadvisors.com.

About Timber Bay Partners
Timber Bay Partners is an independent private equity firm focused on GP-led secondary transactions. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, the firm’s investment professionals have worked with general partners for more than a decade to structure unique and creative solutions to liquidity issues faced by mature private equity funds. Timber Bay Partners manages $135 million of committed capital as of March 31, 2019. For more information about Timber Bay Partners, visit www.timberbaypartners.com.

IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Opus Bank (“Opus”) (NASDAQ: OPB) announced today that its Merchant Banking division, through its broker-dealer subsidiary, Opus Financial Partners, served as financial advisor to Destination Pet, LLC (“Destination Pet”), a leading provider of a broad array of pet care services, on its placement of $30 million of debt and equity growth capital. The financing was led by McLarty Capital Partners (“McLarty”), an SBIC debt and equity provider to lower middle market companies. Opus Bank’s bank-sponsored SBIC Fund, Opus Equity Partners, which made a growth equity investment in Destination Pet earlier this year to support the company’s initial nine-location platform, also provided additional growth capital alongside McLarty’s financing. This transaction further highlights the capabilities of Opus Bank’s Merchant Banking platform as a one-stop principal investment and advisory solution.

Dale Cheney, President of the Merchant Banking division, stated, “We are excited to further our relationship with Shane Kelly and the rest of the Destination Pet team, and look forward to working alongside the company as it continues on its growth trajectory. The long-term capital solution provided by McLarty and Opus Equity Partners will enable Destination Pet to execute on its national expansion strategy through the continued acquisition and buildout of top-quality pet care facilities.”

Shane Kelly, CEO of Destination Pet, commented, “We are enthusiastic to partner with McLarty as we continue to grow the Destination Pet platform. The new financing from McLarty and the additional growth capital from Opus Equity Partners will allow us to bring the Destination Pet experience to an even greater number of pet owners and their pets.”

Parris Boyd, Principal of McLarty, added, “Destination Pet has built an incredible business supported by a clear growth strategy and a significant pipeline of acquisitions in the pet care space. We look forward to a successful partnership with Shane and his experienced team of executives as they expand Destination Pet to become a leading provider of pet care services.”

About Opus Bank’s Merchant Banking Division
Opus Bank’s Merchant Banking division is an integrated principal investing and financial advisory platform that provides a broad range of direct investment and advisory solutions to lower middle-market companies. The Merchant Banking division includes Opus Equity Partners, LLC, the advisor to the Opus Bank-sponsored private equity SBIC Fund that provides growth capital to successful and dynamic companies in need of a capital solution beyond what is customarily available from traditional bank sources. The Merchant Banking division also includes Opus Financial Partners, LLC, Opus Bank’s wholly-owned registered broker-dealer, an investment banking group that provide advisory solutions to lower middle-market companies for mergers & acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs, growth equity capital, junior and senior debt, recapitalizations, and other broad transactional support to assist companies in their business development efforts.

About Opus Bank
Opus Bank is an FDIC insured California-chartered commercial bank with $7.7 billion of total assets, $5.2 billion of total loans, and $6.3 billion in total deposits as of June 30, 2017. Opus Bank provides superior ideas and solutions, and banking products to its clients through its Retail Bank, Commercial Bank, Merchant Bank and Correspondent Bank. Opus Bank offers a suite of treasury and cash management and depository solutions and a wide range of loan products, including commercial, healthcare, public finance, media and entertainment, corporate finance, multifamily residential, commercial real estate and structured finance, and is an SBA preferred lender. Opus Bank offers commercial escrow services and facilitates 1031 Exchange transactions through its Escrow and Exchange divisions. Opus Bank provides clients with financial and advisory services related to raising equity capital, targeted acquisition and divestiture strategies, general mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financing, balance sheet restructuring, valuation, strategy and performance improvement through its Merchant Banking Division and its broker-dealer subsidiary, Opus Financial Partners, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC. Opus Bank’s alternative asset IRA custodian subsidiary has $16 billion of custodial assets and more than 52,000 client accounts as of September 15, 2017, which client accounts are comprised of self-directed investors, financial institutions, capital raisers and financial advisors. Opus Bank operates 51 banking offices, including 31 in California, 17 in the Seattle/Puget Sound region in Washington, two in the Phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona and one in Portland, Oregon. Opus Bank is an Equal Housing Lender. For additional information about Opus Bank, please visit our website: www.opusbank.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This release may include forward-looking statements related to Opus Bank’s plans, beliefs and goals, which involve certain risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information presented in this press release is not a guarantee of future events, and actual events may differ materially from those made in, or suggested by, the forward-looking information contained in this press release. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “intend” or “expect” or variations thereon or similar terminology. All such statements speak only as of the date made, and Opus undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.