Gryphon Meat
Capital to fulfill new contracts by the time the ink had dried
A century-old meat processing and distribution business built its name in wholesale. When they began testing direct retail distribution in supermarkets, it gained traction fast—faster than a bank's underwriting process could account for. National Business Capital enabled the expansion with an $800,000 Term Loan, funded in two days.
The Situation
Gryphon Meat has spent more than a century supplying wholesale meat, building relationships with buyers and a reputation for consistency. Under its current, third-generation leadership, the business began testing something new: selling directly into retail through supermarket distribution, a channel that gave it more control over margin and a more direct line to customer demand.
The retail model worked. Supermarket buyers signed on, and the volume that came with those contracts was considerable. But this was a new performance history sitting on top of a much longer wholesale track record, and the business needed working capital that could move at the pace the new contracts demanded.
The Challenge
Meat processing businesses already sit outside how many conventional lenders evaluate inventory and collateral, and Gryphon’s expansion into retail added a second layer to that problem. The new retail revenue was gaining traction, but it hadn’t built up enough history on its own to meet a bank’s underwriting requirements. Margins in the business had also been thin in recent years, with a loss on the books from 2024 that made a straightforward bank conversation harder to have.
Meanwhile, timelines for fulfilling the contracts were rigid. Agreements were signed, and inventory needed to be purchased and delivered to meet them. The business needed capital that reflected where it was headed, not only what the last two years of financials showed.
Gryphon’s financial partners recognized the gap for what it was: a business with forward momentum that needed a capital partner able to look past a thin-margin year and evaluate what the retail expansion was actually producing.
That’s the position National Business Capital was brought in to fill, working alongside the existing senior relationship rather than replacing it.
We evaluated the business on its current retail traction and its signed contracts. Once the deal was structured, we moved fast. A $800,000 Term Loan was funded in two days, giving Gryphon Meat the inventory capital it needed on the same timeline as its supermarket commitments.
With funding in place, Gryphon Meat purchased inventory in bulk at a discounted cost, improving margin on the new retail volume from the start. Supermarket contracts were fulfilled on schedule, and the retail channel continued building on the traction it had already shown.
Revenue has grown by $600,000 year over year since the retail expansion began, bringing the business to $8.3 million in 2025.
The loan is structured to pay down over its twelve-month term as new revenue builds, matching the business’s actual growth curve rather than forcing an early payoff.
Why This Works
When a business model matures during an expansion cycle, working capital has to cover the businesses’s day-to-day operations as well as what it’s becoming. Historical performance still has a place in the capital stack, but so does what a business is demonstrating right now, in real contracts and real traction.
Gryphon Meat’s retail expansion was already working. What it needed was a capital partner who could read that momentum instead of waiting for two more years of financials to prove it. That’s the difference between capital that reacts to a business’s history and capital that keeps pace with where the business is actually going.
The real risk was letting the moment pass
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