Jim Schroeder says he receives 35-50 e-mails a day from people around the world looking for Sunny Boy cereal.
Recently, more than 2,000 people lined up at the company’s breakfast cereal plant to taste pancakes made from Sunny Boy’s new mix.
Schroeder said response to the cereal, which is made from prairie wheat, rye and flax, has been beyond his family’s imagination since it announced it was reopening the mothballed plant in Camrose.
“It’s been absolutely overwhelmingly phenomenal.”
However, while grocery stores can’t seem to keep up with consumer demand, bankers and other investors have been less enthusiastic.
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The company, which was established 75 years ago, falls in the cracks between a commercial investment and an agricultural business. The appetite for lending money to agricultural ventures has almost disappeared and commercial businesses need a government guarantee to eliminate financial risk.
“Trying to raise capital for agriculture value companies is absolutely terrible from conventional lenders,” said Schroeder, who was forced to look to the United States and Europe for money to buy the land, building and equipment.
Raising money to run the business, hire food brokers, redesign the packaging and expand the brand into Eastern Canada was nearly impossible. Instead, the company hired Pro Fund, a professional money-raising organization, to raise money for each stage of its expansion.
Colleen De Maere of Pro Fund in Calgary said part of the plan is to look for equity investors to invest $10,000 per unit.
A small area was set aside at the pancake breakfast for people interested in investing in the company. Unlike banks that require monthly payments, an equity investor’s money is a long-term investment.
“Each person investing is betting the company is going to be successful,” De Maere said.
Schroeder said the family is looking at equity investment as a way to raise capital without the monthly payment plans that banks expect.
It has also explored government ag-value funding, but with little luck.
“There’s just so much government tokenism about ag-value funding, but try to find it,” he said. “They’re giving it lip service, but not the support and the risk tolerance that is required.”
