Turnaround Plan Generates $25M of Savings

650

Annual Sales

100

Debt

West Liberty Foods, Liberty Iowa

Challenge


Turkey Slaughter and Meat Processing


  • MorrisAnderson engaged to do assessment at request of Bank Group.
  • MorrisAnderson’s work immediately pivoted to Turnaround Plan Development as Company was losing $25M annually and would run out of cash within a few months.
  • Sales of number one customer Walmart was growing rapidly but required significant additional capital investment.
  • New CEO with CFO and VP Sales both retiring soon.
  • Management had no plans to address pending cash crisis.

Solution


  • MorrisAnderson worked with management to develop Turnaround Plan to improve near-term profitability by $25M which provided enough time for additional Walmart sales volume to ramp up and add $20M of EBITDA which allowed for adequate debt service.
  • Turnaround Plan included partial closure of a plant, SKU rationalization, vendor cost concessions, overhead and staff reductions and temporary cost reductions on purchased prices from turkey grower owners.
  • Turnaround Plan also required a three quarter principal payment moratorium from the bank group and a sale leaseback of the Company’s most valuable processing plant.
  • MorrisAnderson initiated a rigorous cash management process involving both finance and procurement personnel to manage cash weekly within the constraints of a borrowing base.
  • Bank group consented to support the Turnaround Plan.

Results


  • Company EBITDA substantially improved and became positive approaching the $20M target.
  • Sale leaseback was completed which reduced debt and provided extra liquidity.
  • Cash was successfully managed within borrowing base.
  • Company’s debt could now be restructured or refinanced.