Ceres Organics

Ceres Enterprises Ltd is one of the two largest wholesale organic distributors in New Zealand as well as being one of our longest standing customers.  In early 2006 they approached us for further development finance to help them meet the demands of their ongoing growth.

Prometheus has made a number of working capital loans to Ceres as they have grown over the past 20 years but the latest phase of their development is the most significant to date.

The past five years have seen a substantial growth in sales of Ceres' wide range of organic grocery items as they have made steady inroads into mainstream supermarkets. This has been a challenging market for Ceres to enter, both because of the margin pressure that has brought and the requirements around ordering systems and supply response.

This growth created a need for higher stocking and staffing levels and had put intense pressure on both warehousing and office space over recent years. Ceres' management had a difficult time finding satisfactory alternative premises as they wished to not only meet the needs of the expanding business but also find a site with a similar exterior greenspace for staff breaks as they enjoyed at their previous location.

An ideal venue was finally located in late 2005 and the move arranged for early 2006, with all the attendant logistics of moving such a large operation smoothly onto an operational footing in a new location.

Prometheus provided the first part of a loan in early 2006 to help with that relocation and to assist the build up in stock levels that was needed. A further stage of finance provision followed to allow a substantial IT upgrade so that ordering and delivery systems can be streamlined and better managed with the existing level of staff.

We were very pleased to be able to support Ceres in expanding their organic and value-based business.