The Rheems-based firm needed more financing to survive, its investment banker says.
And now it’s arrived, in the form of new ownership.
Cope’s, one of the county’s oldest and best-known agri-businesses, was sold recently in two parts for undisclosed prices.
Its retail operation — making toasted and dried sweet corn, frozen vegetables and other products under the John Cope label — has been bought by a Hanover firm, Farm Stand Foods.
Its wholesale operation, as well as the company’s land, buildings and equipment, have been acquired by a new consortium, Pennsylvania Food Group.
That side of the Cope’s business processes vegetables under other labels for wholesalers, supermarkets, food makers and others.
Ken Mann, president of Equity Partners Inc., which Cope’s retained to find a buyer or investor for its wholesale operation, said today Cope’s was in dire straits.
“It was severely financially distressed. It never was properly financed coming out of that bankruptcy (when it emerged in 2004). ...It certainly was at risk of shutting down if a transaction didn’t happen,” he said.
The 106-year-old firm, with about 100 year-round employees, generates annual sales of about $30 million by processing more than 40 million pounds of vegetables a year.
Although the retail business is the side of the company that made the Cope’s name famous, it generated a small part of its total sales, accounting for 10 percent or less.
Mann said the transactions did not trigger layoffs among Cope’s year-round staff.
Pennsylvania Food Group is a consortium of Cope’s suppliers, customers and packers, said Mann. Its spokesman could not be reached for comment this morning.
“Everybody (in the consortium) had some vested interest in keeping Cope’s alive. They also bring some strategic synergies (because of their relationships with Cope’s),” explained Mann.
Pennsylvania Food Group bought the wholesale side of Cope’s in December. Farm Stand Foods bought the retail side in August.
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