Food Products Business for Sale in Whitefish

Northwoods Artisanal Peanut Butter (NWPB) makes artisanal peanut butter. We use five proprietary recipes to make both creamy and chunky peanut butters. Product is produced in small batches and sold in specialty grocery stores, as well as online directly to the customer.


  • Image 1 of the business listed for sale
  • Image 2 of the business listed for sale
  • Image 3 of the business listed for sale

NWPB is in its emergence stage. The product is fully developed. Three of the five proprietary flavors have been manufactured in two textures. The market has been proven. Several thousand jars of NWPB have been sold, with a strong repeat-buyer experience. The online marketing and sales channels have been established, proving that sales are more than local.

A buyer with a strong marketing background and/or food product industry experience can step in and continue to drive market penetration and sales growth. The manufacturing and operational components of the company were architected to be hands off, allowing the owner to focus on product development and marketing.

Moreover, the five proprietary flavors have only been produced in 10oz jars to-date. The existing product can be expanded to single-serve packets and multi-serve pouches. Plus, there are other possibilities for product development, including peanut-butter based nutritional bars (think: Kind) and speciality candy (think: Reese's).

In a sentence, the start-up work has been done. It's time for the next owner to bring all the possibilities to fruition.

Asking price

$75,000

I completed this section last because I really wasn't sure what I thought was appropriate. The amount needed to be digestible by a buyer looking to take what I've started and run with it as far as they can. It also needed to reflect a recapture of some (certainly not all) of my financial investment.

Key financial facts and forecast

If you're looking for a thriving, profitable business, this isn't it. It is very much an emerging business and it's being sold for the reasons stated below.

The historical figures bear this out:

2018: Revenue = $0.00 and COGS = $0.00 and Expenses = $10,003 and Net Income = <$10,003>
This was the first year of recipe development and market research. Not included in these figures are approximately $25,000 in additional consulting fees paid to a food start-up expert. Those fees were paid from personal funds before NWPB was formally organized.

2019: Revenue = $9,039 and COGS = $22,861 and Expenses = $21,315 and Net Income = <$35,137>
Sales began May of 2019 at both speciality grocery stores and via famers markets and festivals. COGS was abnormally high due to a first-production error that resulted in donation of approximately $3,500 of product.

2020 YTD (February): Revenue = $918 and COGS = $0 and Expenses = $1,172 and Net Income = <$254>
This is the first full year of normal operations, which is focused on securing distributors and continuing to increase the specialty/health food grocery accounts. There is sufficient product at the 3PL warehouse to get into the fall before any additional COGS will be incurred.

The Appendix includes PDFs of the P&Ls for each year and a balance sheet as of February 2020.

Forecasting sales for an emergent company is like throwing darts in the fog. However, I believe sales could easily climb to $30,000 in 2021 at 25%-30% margins. They could also reach $100,000/year by 2023. How much larger the business grows is directly dependent on the expertise and efforts of the buyer.

Margins are good and can be improved as larger volumes of product are ordered. Operations are very simple because everything was setup to scale automatically as sales grow. Product orders require about eight weeks of lead time, but operations and fulfillment are next-day.

The buyer's primary focus would be in growing distributors and accounts, as well as further developing the brand awareness. Someone with specialty food experience and/or product marketing experience would do well with this business given its launch-pad situation.

Reason for selling

Two months after launching NWPB, my father fell ill and, shortly thereafter, passed away in July 2019. Concurrently, my mother's failing health resulted in her transition from independent living to assisted living to memory care in a four-month period. She subsequently passed in December of 2019. I am the eldest and responsible for handling both of their estates, which is an ongoing effort.

These family events all took place while attending farmers markets and festivals, opening stores, coordinating product formulation, developing the website, and sourcing the warehousing/fulfillment setup.

By the end of 2019, I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I decided to take a 30-day break from the business to determine whether I wanted to continue leaning into the tide. Fortunately, cruise control is relatively easy to maintain for a short period given the company's operational structure.

The short hiatus resulted in the decision to sell NWPB. Life is short and I'm on the back one-half of mine. I'm proud of what NWPB has accomplished. Now, it's time to find someone who can take the reins and grow it into a thriving specialty food business.

Required buyer qualifications

This is cash deal. I'm not interested in financing and cannot, in good conscience, recommend this business to anyone who doesn't have some background in specialty foods and/or (new) product marketing. Emergent businesses are risky, so I'd strongly advise that only buyers with a solid background and a good capital foundation consider this deal.

Sales Memorandum

Download Sales Memorandum

Contact seller


Category: Business | Food products


Updated:

Located in Whitefish, Montana, US


Company website

The business's location on the map (Whitefish, Montana, US)