Will Gano·August 8, 2024

After 4 Years of Part Time Searching, Success | Will Gano Interview

Will Gano is a former Cargill strategy and operations executive who spent nearly 10 years at the company working across food manufacturing, distribution, and commodity businesses before acquiring Bear Stewart, a bakery ingredient manufacturer in Chicago, in January 2024. Bear Stewart — founded in 1899 — makes B2B sweet bakery ingredients including mixes, batters, frozen pre-formed cookies, fillings, and glazes sold to grocery stores, wholesale bakers, and restaurants, with revenue in the very low eight figures and EBITDA margins in the teens. Will conducted a four-year part-time search alongside his Cargill role, engaging the buy-side firm Calder Capital (Grand Rapids) at significant expense (monthly retainer plus a six-figure success fee) to run a proprietary outreach campaign in Chicago's manufacturing and distribution market. He was first introduced to Bear Stewart by Calder in March 2022, but the deal took nearly two years to close because the sellers were working through turmoil with a large national grocery chain customer that had drastically reduced its purchases — turmoil that ultimately benefited Will by reducing the purchase price, eliminating a dangerous customer concentration, and leaving behind substantial unused manufacturing capacity with which he can grow. As what appears to have been the only individual buyer in a process that also attracted private equity and strategics, Will won by offering a fair price and demonstrating to an 80s-era majority owner that all employees would be kept — a non-negotiable for the seller. Closing required six trips to Chicago City Hall to obtain food manufacturing licenses and was nearly delayed past the SBA look-back window.

Deal facts

revenue: low eight figures (stated as 'very low end of eight figures')
financing structure: SBA 7(a) loan (mentioned); deal structure details not fully disclosed
notes: Business founded 1899; majority owner had held it since the 1960s. Buy-side broker (Calder Capital) success fee was six figures; monthly retainer in the thousands. Asset deal structure. Closed January 31, 2024. Business had excess manufacturing capacity from loss of a major national grocery chain customer, which reduced purchase price affordability relative to prior peak earnings. ~30 employees at time of acquisition (down from ~40). EBITDA margin described as 'in the teens'.

Why this business

Will had spent 10 years at Cargill working across food manufacturing and distribution businesses and had been searching specifically for a manufacturing or distribution company. Bear Stewart was a B2B bakery ingredient manufacturer — making mixes, batters, frozen pre-formed cookies, fillings, and glazes sold to grocery stores, wholesale bakers, and restaurants — which mapped almost perfectly to his Cargill experience. He described it as 'love at first sight': he could buy raw agricultural commodities like flour, sugar, and cocoa and make value-added products, something he knew how to do and found tangible and meaningful. He also saw the loss of a large concentrated customer as having already de-risked the business while leaving substantial unused manufacturing capacity as a growth lever.

What's working

Deep industry experience from nearly 10 years at Cargill gave Will immediate credibility with the seller, a game plan on who to call in the industry, and a shorter learning curve on food safety, plant operations, and commodity sourcing
Excess manufacturing capacity means the business can roughly double volume without meaningful capital expenditure — the infrastructure investment has already been made
Winning the deal as the only individual buyer in the process: being the right cultural fit for a seller who insisted all employees remain gave Will a structural advantage over private equity and strategic buyers
Customer concentration problem solved before acquisition: the loss of the large national grocery chain customer occurred before close, so Will inherited a more stable, diversified revenue base
Located in Chicago (Wicker Park and Bucktown), where Will had deep personal and professional ties, enabling a geographically focused search
Relationship built over nearly two years with the seller and banker gave Will a competitive edge and led to selection as one of two finalists despite being an individual buyer

What's hard

Four years of part-time searching while working full-time at Cargill was grueling — Will described it as 'two full-time jobs' and a period of 'search purgatory'
The buy-side broker engagement with Calder Capital cost a monthly retainer in the thousands plus a six-figure success fee at close — expensive with no guarantee of outcome
Even in a major metro like Chicago, the universe of actionable, seller-activated businesses in manufacturing and distribution was tiny out of 10,000 initial prospects
Licensing complexity in Chicago: getting a city food manufacturing license required six trips to City Hall, nearly derailing the January 31 close date; regulatory permitting was far harder than expected
Broker relationships can sour after years of not closing — one broker told Will he bet $10,000 Will would never buy a business before he sold the one Will flagged as having suspicious financials
Managing the psychology of a long search while also trying to perform well in a demanding corporate job; wife eventually said she did not want to hear about any more businesses until one actually closed
Revenue had declined from peak levels after the large grocery chain customer drastically reduced purchases, meaning incoming cash flow was lower than the business's historical high

Notable quotes

It was one of these love at first sight or first hearing things where you know you go to college or university and you come out and you're looking for jobs and you know all about the big companies and it feels almost like you get on the conveyor belt a little bit. In a small business you wear so many hats, you can take such a high leadership role at a relatively earlier stage in your career, you can have a lot more autonomy especially if you're the owner.

Over my four years of searching I didn't send out more than 10 LOIs and they were on businesses that I was serious about acquiring, and I thought my seriousness reflected in the willingness of the seller to engage with me.

I knew I was going to get it done but what gave me the doubt was how long is it going to take. My wife would be like stop telling me about these, I don't want to hear about any more new businesses that you've come across. Tell me when it happens.

My grandfather spent the rest of his career — 50 years or so — working in steel, the last job working for a family held steel manufacturing business where he was the president, and his regret, if you call it that, was: man, I helped make these people so much money. I would have loved to do that for our family instead of their family.