Published in PE HUB WIRE
Salad dominated my first lunch with John S. Castle, a managing partner of Branford Castle Partners. “The lines are out the door,” said Castle, who had to push his way through a crowd of people to meet me.
Why were a group of well-dressed executives queued up outside in the heat Monday? To buy a salad. I won’t disclose which fast food chain it was. Castle and I tallied up the various salad-related establishments that are seemingly gobbling up Manhattan. There’s Just Salad, sweetgreen, Essen Slow Fast Food and, of course, Chop’t. I confessed I’m a Just Salad member.
Castle, who said he has no vested interest in salad, said it was Chop’t that started the craze. He wondered if the lines outside were really just a matter of getting customers out the door faster. “It’s clear that [Chop’t] created a real category here. This is just an observation,” he said.
For lunch, since we were focused on it, we both had chopped salads (but not from Chop’t). We finally talked about what we were meant to discuss: Branford Castle Partners, the former family office that chose in 2015 to morph into a private equity firm. Castle, who joined in 2002, said the firm decided to make the switch because it “wanted more.”
The GP combined its own money, along with family office and institutional funding, to raise its first pool. In October, Branford Castle Partners announced the final close of its $116 million debut fund. “We wanted to take the next step,” Castle said of the switch to PE. “We wanted more.”
The lower-middle-market PE firm, a generalist investor, has done two deals so far: Surface Preparation Technologies in February and Earthlite Massage Tables last year. Branford Castle Partners will invest up to $20 million to $25 million in companies with EBITDA between $1.5 million and $15 million.
The biggest difference between a family office and a PE firm? You have to put money to work, said Castle.
Castle wouldn’t say if he was interested in investing in a salad chain.