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Wednesday, December 28, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Laird SuperFood awarded forgivable loan
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
The Sisters City Council
has approved the funding of
a $51,000 forgivable loan
to Laird SuperFood, a busi-
ness that opened in Sisters in
November 2015.
The decision came at a
meeting held December 22.
Laird SuperFood is a man-
ufacturer and distributor of
“superfood” products includ-
ing premium coffee, dairy-
free coffee creamers, sweet-
eners like coconut sugar, and
dairy-free cocoa. Superfood
is a marketing term used to
describe foods with purported
health benefits. Founded by
Laird Hamilton, a world-
famous surfer and innova-
tor, Laird SuperFood is one
of Hamilton’s four brands,
including Golfboards (based
in Bend), Laird Apparel, and
XPT.
The Laird SuperFood
creamer recently was
awarded the Best of East
award at the Natural Products
East show, which is the
equivalent of a “product of
the year” award represent-
ing the $160 billion natural
food industry. The creamer is
currently the only marketed-
as-healthy powder coffee
creamer on the market today,
shelf-stable for one year
without using preservatives.
Up to this point in time,
Laird creamer has been avail-
able mainly online, but the
quality of the product and
the recent award recognition
has set the stage for rapid
expansion of the company to
keep up with demand. They
are currently in negotiations
with large and small retailers
who are requesting the Laird
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How can
product for their shelves.
“We’re still about 70
percent e-commerce, but
this will flip next year to
80 percent retail,” said Paul
Hodge, of Laird Superfood.
“We have about 100 gro-
cery stores now around the
country selling our products;
that will grow rapidly next
year as we get a sales rep
network started in January
focused on retailer sales.
We’re also experimenting
in the Tetherow Hotel with
single-serve packs of healthy
creamer and sugar which
is apparently going really
well, and exposing lots of
new people. We’re going to
expand this to some larger
hotel chains this year as
well.”
The Sisters EDCO due-
diligence committee, along
with EDCO representa-
tive Caprielle Lewis, toured
Laird’s temporary facility
here in Sisters in the for-
mer Metabolic Maintenance
building, and met with own-
ers Paul Hodge and Paul
Rawlins, as well as opera-
tions chief Andrew Schar,
who all indicated they would
like to give back to Sisters.
Committee members Bill
Kuhn, vice president of Bank
of the Cascades, Sisters resi-
dent and retired corporate
quality assurance and process
engineer Bill Hall, and City
Councilor and retired corpo-
rate CFO Chuck Ryan, took
the tour and completed all of
the tasks required in review-
ing a company’s forgivable
loan application, and felt
confident in recommending
approval by the Sisters City
Council.
Laird aims to make Sisters
the corporate headquarters
for their business, and hir-
ing is expected to reach 30
full-time employees over
the next several years, 17
of those hopefully in 2017.
They currently employ four
people. Total average com-
pany wages for full-time
year-round employees are
expected to exceed the cur-
rent county annual average
wage of $40,707.
Expansion plans could
result in substantial new
capital expenditures, as they
have already outgrown their
existing building in Sisters
and are actively searching
for a new Sisters facility that
will most likely require sig-
nificant modification. They
also plan to bring some of the
manufacturing process in-
house once the new facility
is operational. It is expected
that new capital expenditures
will yield revenue to the City
in the form of personal and
real property taxes in excess
of the $51,00 loan amount.
The City currently has
$100,000 in the forgivable
loan fund so, after this loan
is made, there will still be
almost half of the fund left.
The process involved in
the Forgivable Loan program
follows a particular format.
A company seeking a forgiv-
able loan makes application;
the EDCO due diligence
committee reviews the appli-
cation, as well as the com-
pany’s current financials;
and scores the company
based on particular criteria.
If the due-diligence com-
mittee determines that the
company is a good candidate
for a loan, they make their
recommendation, via EDCO
representative Lewis, to the
City Council. Council votes
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440 N. Pine St. • 541-549-8141 • www.hoyts.net
541.549.2699
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PHOTO PROVIDED
Laird Hamilton’s creamer is currently the only marketed-as-healthy
powder coffee creamer on the market.
to approve or deny the loan
and, if it is approved, the City
manager and City attorney
conduct negotiations with
the company to hammer out
a contract acceptable to both
parties.
When the contract is
signed, the loan is funded.
The contract states the num-
ber of employees expected to
be hired and maintained by
the end of the loan period.
At the conclusion of the
loan period, if that number
has not been reached or not
maintained, then the com-
pany will be required to
repay the loan plus interest
to the City. If they do attain
their projected employment
numbers and maintain those
jobs for the specified number
of years, the loan is forgiven.
Now that Council has
approved the loan, City
Manager Rick Allen and
City Attorney Jeremy Greene
will be meeting with Laird
SuperFood to develop a
contract agreeable to both
parties.
152 E. Main Ave. • 541-549-8771
Jeff • Theresa • Ann • Jamie • Shiela • Terri • Shanntyl • Brittany