MM Local Foods, LLC

MM Local Foods Second Offer

Denver, CO

http://mmlocalfoods.com

Offer Overview

The 2016 harvest is just around the corner! MM Local needs working capital to finance inventory built from purchasing produce from organic family farms in Oregon and Washington. With a strong start to the current year, MM Local is in a position to capitalize on increasing demand and distribution of our products.

Since December of 2015, MM Local’s monthly sales have been growing an average of 15% month over month continuing through March to date, driven by strong same store growth with Whole Foods, Kroger, Natural Grocers and other leading national grocers and over 90 new retail sales locations picking up our MM Colorado and MM Pacific Northwest productssince the new year.

This will be MM Local’s second Kickfurther campaign. We closed our first – for ~$22,000 – in less than five minutes in October and paid off the offer more than one month early. With inventory from our first raise we were able to supply additional sales growth in early 2016 and also secure the support of the Rudolf Steiner Foundation as an additional finance partner.We’re coming back to the Kickfurther community to help us make new products that will take advantage of our current sales momentum!

With demand increasing and a warm spring accelerating the harvest, MM Local is looking to invest in our MM Colorado Live-Fermented product line (including krauts and Kim-Chi) as well as our MM Pacific NW fruit spreads (including Oregon Blueberries, and brand new Rhubarb-Beet, Single-Varietal Blackberry and Organic Oregon Strawberry) to support new sales opportunities.

We have commitments from Whole Foods in the Pacific Northwest to pick up our new fruit spread SKUs. Our MM Colorado Simply Kraut and Spicy Kale Kim-Chi products are among the top velocity SKUsin their category within the Whole Foods Rocky Mountain Region, and we are on track to sell out of current inventory at our accelerating pace of sales.

MM Local will use the funds raised to secure advance produce purchases with farmers and tobuild inventory through the spring in order to process storage cabbage crops in Colorado, while also launching new SKUs of MM Pacific NW Fruit Spread. Our first 2016products will begin distribution to stores within one month of funding, allowing us to begin payments 60 days after the close of this offer.

Company Details

About MM Local Foods, LLC

Ben Mustin and Jim Mills founded MM Local in 2009 to introduce a trusted brand for authentic local food that connects consumers to farmers – in the grocery store. Starting in Colorado, we began partnering with local farmers to preserve their ripe surplus produce for people to enjoy throughout the year. Our first products were simply-preserved peaches, tomatoes with basil, and pickled chile peppers – simple recipes made with some of Colorados best organic produce. Since making those first 5,000 jars in rented commissary space, our business has really taken off.

Connecting our customers to the farmer who grow their food is part of our mission and part of our product. We label every jar with the farmer who grew whats inside. By connecting customers in an authentic way with the organic family farmers who grow their food, our goal is to raise awareness of local agriculture with our community. And, with 70% of consumers expressing a preference to know where their foods come from and 49% of consumers expressing a preference to buy more local produce, our products meet consumers where their values and purchase preferences align.

As our successful partnerships with leading retailers and local farmers have grown, so too has our impact. Since our founding, MM Local has preserved nearly 1,000,000 pounds of surplus produce grown by local, organic farmers in Colorado. Weve created full-time seasonal production jobs for over 100 Colorado residents – over 80% of whom have been displaced immigrants entering the workforce for the first time. And as our sales increase – surpassing $1M annually in the Rocky Mountain region over the past fiscal year – we are seeing the impact accelerate. In the fall of 2015, our purchases from local farmers will exceed 350,000 pounds in Colorado and over 75,000 pounds in the Pacific Northwest.

MM Local launched our MM Pacific NW product line with five initial SKUs to retailers in January. Sourcing produce from Washington and Oregon farms, and preserving those crops in our Northwest production facility in Oregons Willamette valley, we were able to launch three new products, as well as regionally-sourced versions of our very popular Pickled Beet and Bread & Butter Zucchini Pickle SKUs. Wed love for you to try them and as backers, are offering a discount to order and taste our Blueberry fruit-spread, made in Oregon from organic Oregon berries and our two single-varietal Washington applesauces.

Our new product line has helped us open up a number of new retailer partners in the Pacific Northwest including Haggen Markets, New Seasons Market, Zupans Market and a the Pacific North Whole Foods region, for a total of nearly 90 new retail locations – most of which will be carrying both our MM Colorado and MM Pacific NW product lines.

About the owner

Over the past year, our team has grown to meet the opportunity ahead of us. Co-Founders Jim Mills and Ben Mustin bring strong experience in sales and marketing, product development, brand strategy and operational excellence.Jim and Ben are joined by a strong team of food professionals including Director of Sales Sarah Dixon, Sales and Marketing Coordinator Stacy Greenlee (formerly of Made in Nature) and Controller Lucas Marquardt (of Qrunch Foods).

Product Info

For this offer, we are looking to finance inventory for two product lines: MMColorado Live-Fermented Krauts & Kim-Chis and MMPacificNW Fruit Spreads.

Our Live-Fermented MMColorado products include our Spicy Kale Kim-Chi and Simply Kraut (both top-selling products for MM Local and leaders in the live-fermented category in Whole Food as well as Natural Grocers). In addition, we are looking to scale up production of two additional kraut SKUs to strengthen our shelf presence including Green Chile Kraut (a delicious pairing of fermented green anaheim and poblano chiles with traditional kraut)and Kraut with Caraway (a traditional Bavarian kraut with rye-bread flavor driven by organic caraway seeds). Our Live-Fermented product line is 100% raw and never pasteurized, allowing for naturally-occuring lactobacilli bacterial communities and multiple beneficial enzymes, that drive both great health benefirts including support for digestion and immune health.

Our MMPacificNW fruit spreads use organic fruits and berries from Washington and Oregon and are produced in our production facility in Oregon’s Willamette valley. Fruit-driven, low-sugar alternatives to traditional Jellies and Jams, our fruit spreads have been picked up in both our Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain region retailers and have demonstrated strong initial sell-in in early 2016. We are looking to scale up three new products in this line that including Rhubarb-Beet jam (a super-unique blend with VERY strong initial retail feedback in the Pacific Northwest), Single-varietal Blackberry jam and an organic Oregon Strawberry jam from Zorn Farms in Newberg, Oregon.

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Source: icnw