Whole Foods serves as lender for producers

Goal is to create long relationships for mutual growth

By Alicia Wallace , Daily Camera

Published December 12, 2007 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Mark Leffingwell / Daily Camera

Justin Gold is the founder of Boulder-based Justin's Nut Butter, where growth has been assisted by a $25,000 loan from Whole Foods Market Inc. The grocer launched its Local Producer Loan Program in February and has made loans ranging from $1,000 to $100,000.

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It's all about the squeeze packs.

Single-serving nut butter packages are the latest innovation from the young Boulder-based business Justin's Nut Butter. They're something that founder Justin Gold says is "the future of our company."

A small company faces many limitations and growing pains, so when it came to having to churn out enough packs to meet the demand, Gold says he needed a little help. Some of the assistance came in the form of a $25,000 loan.

"It's not easy," says Gold, 30, of creating and managing triple-digit-percentage growth. "It's a lot of working hard and creating ways to grow in new markets."

It's typical for small businesses to grow in this fashion. But what's atypical about this case is the lender - the nation's largest natural- and organic-products grocer.

Justin's Nut Butter is one of the most recent recipients of a loan from Whole Foods Market Inc. as part of the Austin, Texas-based grocer's Local Producer Loan Program, launched in February.

Some of the expectations for the loans are to expand the availability of locally made products, strengthen business partnerships between Whole Foods and local producers, and reinforce environmentally sustainable practices, Whole Foods officials say.

To make the loans attractive to smaller firms, Whole Foods offers a low, fixed-interest rate between 5 percent and 9 percent, officials say.

Gold said he was wooed not only by Whole Foods' stature and the low interest rate but also by the lack of conditions and restrictions. The $25,000 he received will help get his squeeze packs to retailers such as REI, delis, bagel shops and a host of natural-products retailers.

During the past nine months, Whole Foods doled out loans ranging from $1,000 to $100,000 to more than 20 small-scale food producers in a dozen states. And as of mid-November, Whole Foods had surpassed the $1 million mark for loans administered.

More loans have been inked in Whole Foods' Rocky Mountain region - which includes Colorado - than any other region, said Will Paradise, regional president.

"A lot of these folks have been partners (of Whole Foods) for a long time," Paradise said. "We're trying to make long-term partners here and grow together."

For Haystack Mountain, the loan program represented a way to help put the cheese maker in better graces with Whole Foods, which Haystack Chief Executive Tim Overlie regards as "the premier cheese retailer" nationwide. The dairy is in the process of expanding and hopes to broaden its products' reach, he said.

"It was partially to establish a better, stronger relationship," Overlie said of the $50,000 loan. "We like to be associated with really high-quality retailers."

Benefiting from loans

Some local companies receiving micro loans from Whole Foods as part of its Local Producer Loan Program:

* Justin's Nut Butter

* Boulder Ice Cream: a Boulder producer of all-natural ice cream products

* Full Circle Farms: a Longmont organic grower that is building a refrigerated produce-packing room and a concrete loading area with new material-handling equipment

* Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy: a Niwot goat cheese maker that is expanding its herd, building a nursery for the goat kids and upgrading its irrigation system

* MouCo Cheese: a Fort Collins cheese company that's producing cheese-making forms and support equipment

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