May 12, 2016

By GAI News Staff

Lariat Partners announced it has made a “significant investment” in generic crop protection manufacturer, Willowood USA.

Denver-based Lariat Partners is a private equity firm focusing on the lower middle market, targeting consolidations, management buyouts, recapitalizations, and growth capital investments in specialty agriculture, consumables, energy, environmental services and healthcare according to Crunch Base. The firm generally invests in entrepreneur-led, recurring revenue businesses with EBITDA of between $2 million and $20 million.

“Crop protection is a sub-vertical within our Food and Agribusiness industry focus. We have tracked crop protection companies for many years and based on our industry knowledge and research, our investment in Willowood’s future growth is a great fit for our CORE Investment Strategy,” said Kevin Mitchell, managing partner, Lariat Partners in a recent statement.

U.S.-based Willowood USA is one of the fastest growing producers of past patent herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and growth regulators for the agricultural, vegetation control and turf markets in the U.S.

Lariat’s investment will provide the company with the necessary capital to support its team expansion, to boost its sales and marketing initiatives, and to bolster the company’s development and/or acquisition of new products.

“The strategic investment that Lariat Partners has made in our company will rapidly fuel our growth and presence in U.S. agriculture” states Brian Heinze, Willowood USA President and CEO in a company statement. “We have experienced excellent growth these past 5 years but this investment from Lariat will ramp up our expansion and presence in markets that we have not yet penetrated.”