The New York City-based Artisanal is the first company to market and distribute a wide line of specialty, artisanal and farmstead cheese products and other related specialty food products under its own brand to food wholesalers and retailers and direct to consumers through its catalogue and websitewww.artisanalcheese.com. Since its founding in 2003, Artisanal has grown into a multi-million dollar business with positive cash flow through limited marketing to some of the finest restaurants in Manhattan, a small catalogue mailing that is supported by the company's website and working with large accounts like the Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons hotel chains. The company intends to rapidly expand the distribution of Artisanal's product line by executing on strategic relationships with major companies in each of the four complimentary distribution channels that Artisanal's product serves: foodservice, retail, print catalogue and E-commerce. The company's plan is to make Artisanal the leading national brand for best-in-class cheeses.
In conjunction with the acquisition of Artisanal, the company undertook a $5.0 million private placement of redeemable convertible preferred stock. Furthermore, the company sold its royalty-generating assets in building materials for approximately $1,000,000 and used this cash to retire certain existing debts as it satisfied the remaining debts through a tax-free exchange of debt for equity.