Canadian beverage company Flow Water Inc. has gone private following the company’s sale to an affiliate of Boston-based family office Rucker Investments.
According to a company statement issued Monday, the transaction was approved this month by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, making the affiliate company the sole shareholder in the business. Day-to-day production and customer service is expected to continue without disruption.
Paul Dowdall, Flow’s former CFO and a member of an interim CEO group that was running the company, has been named President.
“This restructuring provides a stable foundation for the business, its partners, customers, suppliers, and employees,” Dowdall said in a statement. “Our focus is on quality, reliability and disciplined growth, with an eye toward innovation.”
According to the announcement, a “significant number” of employees are remaining in their roles and positions. The company also said it is moving forward in a financially stable manner “with a deleveraged balance sheet, access to working capital and capacity for strategic investment.”
Founded in 2014, Flow makes a line of aseptic-packaged bottled waters and also served as a major Tetra Pak-equipped co-packer for North American beverage brands whose customers included BeatBox, BioSteel and Joyburst.
The company went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2021 but regularly struggled to achieve revenue growth as a public company.
This summer, Flow announced it had defaulted on debts to two of its primary lenders – NFS Leasing Canada Inc. and RI Flow LLC – leading it to enter a support agreement as its creditors foreclosed on the business. The foreclosure also resulted in the resignation of longtime CEO and co-founder Nicholas Reichenbach.
Rucker Investments founder Cliff Rucker also serves as the founder and chairman of NFS Leasing Inc.
All previously issued and outstanding shares of Flow Water were canceled without consideration by the Ontario court and excluded assets and liabilities have now been transferred to a newly created company, called ResidualCo, which will be wound-down by a court-appointed receiver and “any legacy entities” that are not remaining with the business following the ownership transfer.
BevNET has reached out to Dowdall for additional comment.