Marley Coffee, an artisan roasted gourmet coffee, announced that for the second time this year, it has settled trade payables which this time totaled $1,270,000, removing these obligations from its balance sheet in exchange for the issuance of shares of its common stock to Ironridge Consumer Co., a division of Ironridge Global IV, Ltd., an institutional investor specializing in direct equity investments in consumer product companies. Ironridge previously purchased certain debts of the company held by third party creditors, which make up the amount settled.
In this latest round, more than 90 percent of the financing is going towards paying for the company's cost of goods to supply its customers. In other words, most of the $1.27M in debt reduction creates free cash flow that we would have otherwise spent on products in addition to the margins it would have already received.
"We've worked with Ironridge before so we're very comfortable with working with them again," said Rohan Marley, founder and chairman of Marley Coffee, in a prepared statement. "We believe that our share price has remained steady due to our relationship with Ironridge as our team has continued to execute on our business plan. We plan on continuing to grow our company and to get our message out to the world," continued Marley.
"According to T. Rowe Price analysts, coffee is a particularly dynamic segment at the moment, and single-serve systems are a key driver of growth in the coffee segment because they represent an innovation for consumers," commented John C. Kirkland, managing director of Ironridge Global Partners. Kirkland continued, "Ironridge remains impressed by what Rohan and his team have accomplished at Marley Coffee. When we sat down the first time, they explained their business strategy to us and ever since the first deal, we have seen them close on that strategy. They exceeded our expectations in delivering what they promised, which is why we are so comfortable offering the same terms with an additional financing round so quickly."
"The first deal with Ironridge was about increasing the company's future cash flows and strengthening our balance sheet," said Brent Toevs, CEO of the company. "About two thirds of that financing went towards paying debts related to monies borrowed and vendors and the last third went towards paying off our costs of goods. In the last 10 weeks, we've started seeing some of our largest orders come in. This latest round is about generating free cash flow since 90 percent of the funding is paying down our costs of goods on sales. Our objective is to put that money right back into our growth strategy and to continue building on sales to achieve our 6,000 retail location 2013 goal," said Toevs.
