August 18, 2016

Inland Sea – Harlan LLC, a new aquaculture company in western Iowa, plans to build a state-of-the-art two-acre salmon farm using the Danish indoor recirculating aquaculture system (RAS).

The company is seeking $12 million in equity capital through a 506 C private placement offering to partially fund construction of the facility and to cover operating costs with the remaining $16 million for the project being secured through debt financing.

The company, which is run by Jackson Kimle, who is serving as vice president for business development and his father, Kevin Kimle, company CEO and professor at Iowa State University, is targeting production of 5.3 million pounds of salmon per year from the farm to serve the U.S. Midwest market.

Although Iowa may seem an unusual choice for an aquaculture operation, Inland Sea notes on their website that the key to successful animal protein production is access to feed and clean water – both of which Iowa has in abundance. Additionally, the state has some of the lowest electricity costs in the country for running an RAS system. Furthermore, by locating their farm in Iowa, Inland Sea states that they can leverage their transportation cost advantage and freshness advantage over typical salmon sold in the region that currently comes from Chile, Norway, or Scotland.

Construction of the facility is slated to begin this year with the company’s first harvest expected in 2018. Annual revenues are projected to be between $16 million and $20 million depending upon market price and volume of output, and annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization are expected to be between $4 million and $7 million.

The company will be holding a meeting with interested investors at 1:30pm on September 6 in Harlan, however, additional meetings scheduled for future dates include:

September 7 – Des Moines Citizens Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center, 833 5th Avenue

September 8 – Sioux City Stoney Creek Inn (Pioneer Room), 300 3rd Street

September 12 – Mason City NIACC Muse Norris Conference Center, 500 College Drive

September 13 – Cedar Rapids Marriott, 1200 Collins Road

September 15 – Council Bluffs Mid-America Center (Club Room – upstairs), One Arena Way

—

Lynda Kiernan