Equity markets are experiencing precipitous declines, and 16 million unemployment claims have been filed during the last three weeks. With continuously evolving business and capital markets news emerging daily, food and ag-centric private equity groups, operating companies and their investors should expect highly volatile results and startling, unanticipated consequences for the foreseeable future.
As the U.S. faces an unprecedented era of heightened uncertainty stemming from the outbreak of COVID-19, we as a nation have been starkly reminded of the critical role of our food and beverage ecosystem. Unique to food and beverage companies, COVID-19 can greatly impact your business positively or negatively depending on where you sit in the farm-to-fork value chain. It is vital for all food and beverage companies to keep our grocery shelves (physical or digital) stocked – at the end of the day, everyone needs to eat. Growers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, brands, restaurants, and e-commerce solution platforms have effectively become, along with medical and healthcare providers, police and fire fighters, our first responders.
In this newsletter, FocalPoint’s Food & Beverage Investment Banking team discusses the current state of the food and beverage sector; we are confident that those companies which emerge from this one-time impact of COVID-19 will be stronger, and that the sector’s general slant towards community and teamwork will play a large part in shaping its future.
About FocalPoint Partners, LLC
FocalPoint is an independent investment bank specializing in mergers and acquisitions, private placements, financial restructurings, and special situation transactions. The firm provides advisory services to middle market clients in aerospace and defense, business services, consumer, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrials, and media/technology. With offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Shanghai, and affiliated partner offices around the world, FocalPoint’s domestic and international coverage across eight key industry verticals is truly global. Visit focalpointllc.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.