Palladin Consumer Retail Partners Announces New Hires; Rob Fioretti, Anders Petersen and John Lawrence Strengthen Team and Expand New Deal Focus

Boston, MA, April 20, 2017:  Palladin Consumer Retail Partners (www.pcrp.com) is pleased to announce the recent hire of three new partners – Robert Fioretti, Managing Director; Anders Petersen, Managing Director and John Lawrence, Chief Financial Officer.  All are industry veterans with a total of over 60 years of significant investment and management expertise.  Palladin expanded and strengthened its team to help manage existing portfolio companies and increase investment activity.

Rob Fioretti (rfioretti@pcrp.com; 1-617-585-3810) has over 25 years of experience investing in, financing and providing strategic advice to private equity-backed companies.  Most recently he was a Managing Director at Falconhead Capital, a private equity firm focused on middle market consumer businesses. Prior to that, Rob was a Managing Director and a founding member of Mistral Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on middle market growth consumer businesses.  Before the formation of Mistral in 2007, he was a Managing Director of Trimaran Capital Partners and a member of the Leveraged Financed Group of CIBC World Markets Corp.  Rob currently is a Director of InMotion Entertainment and Multi-Flow Industries and serves on the Investment Committee of Wharton Impact Investment Partners.  He earned a BSc and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Anders Petersen (apetersen@pcrp.com; 1-617-585-3830) has over 12 years of investment experience and has closed 17 deals with a combined enterprise value of $1.8 billion.  Most recently, he was a Partner at VO2 Partners, a consumer focused private equity firm with a specialty in the health and wellness sector.  His responsibilities at VO2 included sourcing, structuring, and executing deals, and he also served as interim CFO of two different portfolio companies.  Prior to joining VO2, Anders was a member of the investment teams at Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity and Dubin Clark & Company and was a Senior Consultant at Deloitte.  He currently is a Director of KT Tape, a Chairman of the Board of Copenhagen Concepts, and a Board Observer of Mission Athletecare.  Anders earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA with magna cum laude honors from Georgia State University.

John Lawrence (jlawrence@pcrp.com; 1-617-585-3815) has over 20 years of experience within private equity, operating and public accounting firms.  John has been the CFO and a Partner at Longworth Venture Partners since 2001.  Prior to joining Longworth, he was the CFO and a Director of Quail Piping Products, a private equity-backed manufacture of fiber-optic conduit products and the Assistant Vice President of Finance of Asahi/America, a NASDAQ listed manufacturer and distributor of fluid flow systems. John started his career at Arthur Andersen holding various senior audit positions in the Enterprise and Technology Group.  He is a CPA, earned an MBA from Suffolk University and a BA with magna cum laude honors from Assumption College.

Mark Schwartz, CEO of Palladin (mschwartz@pcrp.com; 1-617-585-3810), commented, “I am thrilled to welcome Rob, Anders and John to the Palladin team.  They all have tremendous experience sourcing, structuring, acquiring and managing portfolio companies.  Rob brings the added skill set of helping to found and grow private equity firms, which is important as we expand our platform, while Anders and John also have operating experience that remains a competitive advantage for Palladin in partnering with management teams to grow their businesses successfully.  They complement our existing team well, and we look forward to working together as we actively seek new investment opportunities.”

Palladin Consumer Retail Partners (“Palladin” or “PCRP”) is a Boston-based private investment firm, founded in 1998, that focuses primarily on the consumer products and services sectors in North America and Europe.  The principals of PCRP have invested in, financed or managed over 120 public and private companies.  The firm prides itself on working closely with management teams to create value through strategic and operational initiatives.  PCRP strives to provide its portfolio companies with the advantages of a strategic partner and the operating flexibility and incentives of a financial investor.  PCRP targets middle market consumer and retail companies with revenues ranging from $50 to $200 million, seeks to invest $10 to $50 million of equity capital in each transaction, and will work with investment partners for larger opportunities.

Contact:

Patricia Donnelly

pdonnelly@pcrp.com

1(617) 585-3802

www.pcrp.com