Regenerative Capital

Multi-Draw Old Salt Construction

by Old Salt Co-op
Multi-Draw Old Salt Construction

Old Salt empowers Montana ranchers to earn living wages and continue to steward the quality of their products beyond the pasture.

Project Summary
  • Location: Helena, MT
  • Products: Livestock Value added/CPG
  • Loan Amount: $2,631,143.52
  • Loan Term: 60 months
  • Net Interest Rate: 7.50% APR
  • Repayments Begin: 1 month after disbursement

Overview

A lack of regional meat processing often puts Montana ranchers between a rock and a hard place. Unable to access an appropriate processing facility within 500+ miles, they must sell their product into commodity markets for a fraction of its value, or try to build a hyper-local meat brand that can only move a fraction of their herd. Old Salt Co-op offers a new model. Building a truly regional and vertically integrated supply chain from scratch—complete with a regional-scale processing facility, butcher shop, and two restaurants—allows the partnering ranches to keep their entire supply chain rooted in the Montana food economy. In addition to yielding the highest quality food for customers, the fully integrated processing and sales outlets allow producers to create more local jobs, highlight the full diversity of their product offerings, and capture more margin to re-invest in the stewardship of their working lands, staff, families, and communities. 


Integrated Loan Campaigns for an Integrated Business

The interconnected nature of Old Salt’s supply chain requires development to take place in multiple locations simultaneously. To support uninterrupted construction progress, while also engaging the Steward lending community at a reasonable pace, fundraising for the Old Salt Co-op project will be offered in multiple stages over the next 6-12 months. Each multi-draw SRC loan will be refinanced by a direct loan campaign from Steward's lender network. Click here for a detailed description of the full project. 


Regenerative & Sustainable Practices

Old Salt’s model is built on the idea that when producers have an alternative to a commodity system that makes their decisions for them and reduces their profits to razor-thin margins, then producers will also have more resources and capacity to invest in the ecological stewardship of their lands. Old Salt intentionally steers away from buzzword branding, which is constantly shifting and can cause division in agricultural communities, in an effort to build connection and investment in sustainable, regional food systems. 

“Obviously salt fits with meat pretty well,” Cole Mannix says of the Old Salt brand name. “But another reason for the name is the idea of, when customers and producers engage more thoughtfully in the food system together, then we can enhance lands like salt enhances a recipe—like salt of the earth. It’s really about people participating in enhancing land and community rather than being extractive.”

Old Salt Co-op and participating producers:

  • Treat animals with the respect and care they deserve, raising them naturally without the use of hormones, and allowing them to roam and graze on pasture. All three founding ranches participate in smaller IMI Global certifications such as NHTC (non-hormone treated cattle).

  • Protect species across the larger ecosystem through third-party certification programs and ecological monitoring systems. Old Salt is currently evaluating Savory Institute's Ecological Outcomes Verified Program as well as Audubon's Conservation Ranching Initiative for "Bird Friendly Beef."

  • Increase employment in the local and regional economy by providing high-quality sustainable jobs. All three founding ranches have participated in Western Sustainability Exchange’s certification program, which evaluates sustainability through the lens of both environmental stewardship and economic prosperity.

  • Support Montana businesses through local sourcing of ingredients and supplies. Old Salt Outpost sources from in-state, regenerative producers for everything from burger buns and french fry potatoes to packaging, paper goods, and composting services. As Butcher’s Table opens, Old Salt is working to on-board a dozen or more local producers and vendors to support the menu.

  • Capture a higher margin through direct-to-consumer sales, which improves producers’ quality of life and ability to invest in land stewardship.

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