Invermere’s Kicking Horse Coffee brings on private equity partner

Elana Rosenfeld remains CEO of Kicking Horse Coffee.

Kicking Horse Coffee of Invermere has been sold to a US-based private equity partnership according to the Vancouver Sun.

Though terms of the deal were not released, the scope of it was large and lucrative enough to capture a "dealmaker-of-the-year" award at the annual Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) in Vancouver. A spokesman for the association said the Kicking Horse deal was under $100 million and that “the sale attracted almost a dozen offers for the business and ultimately set an industry beating valuation."

Elana Rosenfeld—a 50 per cent partner in the business—continues to be a shareholder in the company, retains the CEO position and will be a board member of the private equity partnership. Her former partner Leo Johnson has cashed out and left the company.

AC Nielsen ranks Kicking Horse Coffee as one of the Top 10 commercial coffee brands in Canada along with Folgers, Nabob and Tim Hortons.

According to the Vancouver Sun, “When Rosenfeld and Johnson decided to part ways two years ago, they engaged David Lam, a Deloitte partner in mid-market corporate finance, to find a buyer. Lam was able to attract almost a dozen international players. The company's strong brand recognition in the market was key, Lam said. Kicking Horse not only had high growth and strong profits, its sustainable focus resonated with consumers.

The ultimate buyer, Branch Brook Holdings, is a partnership between Swander Pace Capital, Jefferson Capital Partners and United National Foods that invests in North American organic and natural consumer product companies. Other Swander Pace holdings include Liberté yogurt, Genisoy and Pineridge Bakery.”

Founded in 1996, Kicking Horse Coffee was noted for its rapid growth, which was supported in part by a series of five loans from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).