Intellectual Property Acquisition Opportunity
Fresh & Easy, LLC
Bid Deadline Extended: Thurdsday, June 2, 2016 at 5:00PM EST
OPPORTUNITY
Hilco Streambank has been retained by Fresh & Easy, LLC (the “Company”) to sell its intellectual property and related assets (the “Assets”). The Company is currently operating as a Debtor under Chapter 11 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Bankruptcy Court”).
BACKGROUND
The Company was founded by UK grocer Tesco in 2007 and quickly established operations throughout California, Arizona and Nevada. At its peak Fresh & Easy operated approximately 200 stores providing affordable healthy foods, emphasizing natural and organic products, in a convenient, easy to shop format. In 2013, the Company was restructured under new management with the goal of building a food retail concept that would fill an unmet need for today’s time pressured consumer. Following that restructuring, Fresh & Easy continued its operations generating revenue of $780M for FY2014.
Fresh & Easy maintained a vast library of approximately 7,400 formulations for fresh food and shelf stable products. The formulations database consists of recipes, product specifications, packaging, labeling, supplier information, cooking / preparation instructions among other information managed using Oracle’s MICROS® myCreations product development software platform (“myCreations”). Fresh & Easy additionally owns the ingredient listing and preparation instructions to 270 items, housed outside of myCreations, along with the standard operating procedures (“SOP”) for equipment utilized at the Company’s private production facilities. A complete summary of assets can be found below.
SUMMARY OF ASSETS
Trademarks
Trademarks – 15 Registered Trademarks including:
- Fresh & Easy®
- F&E®
- The Big Kahuna®
Domain Names – 5 Registered Domains including
- Freshandeasy.com
- Freshfoodsus.com
- Freshfoodsus.net
- Freshfoodsus.org
Product Library
- Detailed Specifications for 7,400 Product Formulations
- Product and Technical Image Library
- Food Manufacturing & Standard Operating Procedures
- Product Packaging Specifications
SALE PROCESS
On October 30, 2015, the Company commenced voluntary chapter 11 cases in the Bankruptcy Court. Accordingly, the sale of the Assets will need to be authorized and approved by the Bankruptcy Court pursuant to section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code.
Data Room – An online data room has been constructed where parties under confidentiality agreement can review assembled diligence information.
Bid Deadline
Initial bids must be submitted by Thursday, June 2nd, at 5:00PM Eastern Standard Time.