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  • Marty Sands Greenwich CT Website

About Marty

VISION, HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE, PASSION FOR SUCCESS

Marty is an experienced executive with knowledge gained from   a myriad  of  endeavors  through analyzing,  privately researching,  and through direct experience in many areas of finance, capital structure, valuations, management on both Wall Street and Main Street, operations of basic and specialty niche businesses and over a 30 year career, on both the buy side, sell side and as both an agent and a principal, excelling at several leading investment banks including Shearson Lehman, Oppenheimer and Company, until he  moved to launch his own firm in 1990, with his brother and partner, Steven Sands.

Shortly thereafter, the firm became a New York Stock Exchange member firm as well as a member of the Toronto Stock Exchange and  grew to develop both an international as well as a domestic investment banking business. During this period, the firm was involved with many public and private transactions including  underwriting, whereby, in certain transactions, they were co- managers with firms such as Oppenheimer, Lehman, Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette, and others including those deals they may have originated and syndicated which included (but not limited to) Conseco,  Air Methods, Closure Medical, Brightpoint (Wholesale Cellular), and others. The investment banking company had robust growth and by  2001/2002, the firm had approximately 400 employees domestically and internationally.

During the next 15 years, Martin and Steven focused their interests  on direct investments as a manager and/or principal. Through various managed entities, both family-related, and unrelated, they made direct or controlling investments in either debt or equity into numerous businesses including (but not limited to) Calgon, which was eventually sold to Yellow Wood Partners, Lev Pharma, which was acquired by Viropharma, Viactiv which was purchased from Johnson and Johnson and then sold to Texas Pacific Group, and Gourmet Dining   which was acquired through a structured transaction into a newly formed entity, Frozen Food Partners, after it fell into distress. This  distress led to a restructuring opportunity, which resulted in an entity managed by him and his brother now controlling the entire business  through Frozen Food Partners.

To further expand this platform, a Frozen Foods Partners, subsidiary, negotiated a strategic alliance with Hain Celestial to manage and hold  a majority interest in Rosetto Foods, LLC., which has a license for the Rosetto brand of frozen Italian foods, adding significant revenues to the overall Frozen Foods business.

Separately, Marty and his wife  launched a branded food start-up  to  capitalize on the surging trends in the natural, healthy, better for you food space, Just Real Foods in 2014.

Seasoned Expertise

INVESTOR • ENTREPRENEUR • PORTFOLIO MANAGER

While clearly an experienced executive with knowledge in many areas of finance, investment s, capital structure and management/operations of basic business, Marty has continued to pursue compelling opportunities. These opportunities, coupled with his passion for performance, and in locating interesting situations, has led him to focus on certain specific areas including the food space. A healthy lifestyle drove him to consume low processed foods in his personal nutritional regimen. His ambitious drive and a keen eye at spotting trends as well as talent, has continued to provide fuel for his thinking while he continues to manage and purse various business endeavors . Here, he continues to rely on his core ethics, common sense, thinking outside the box, and his interest to innovate.

CAPITAL STRUCTURING
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIC PLANNING

Areas of Focus

For More Information, Including Unpublished Deals & Projects – Contact Me.

Marty continues to manage, invest, and pursue compelling opportunities. These opportunities span a diverse spectrum, due to the fact that Marty is constantly open-minded to situations that he deems to be interesting, revolutionary, disruptive, and/or exciting.

As such, Marty has a wide scope of industry/company experiences  and is always open-minded to hearing a compelling story. More specifically, while having been involved in countless deals, his more recent interests which he views as compelling today are in the following areas:

Marty  has  spent  years  investing and reviewing the food industry and has come away with the personal conclusion that the industry is transforming.  In his view, the industry is moving to  healthier choices, cleaner labels, better quality ingredients, and focus on health and nutritional benefits. A restructuring opportunity allowed  him to create Frozen Foods Partners, a platform business that now  owns/manages the following brands:

  • Gourmet Dining
  • La Sambrosa
  • True Earth
  • Rosetto Pasta

Separately, his wife’s  passion for a healthy lifestyle led him to consume minimal levels of processed foods and through her passion, he and his wife launched Just Real Foods, LLC.

As they build out the scope of this brand, they currently have the following categories:

  • Krave the Krunch Grainless Granola

Marty has pursued several compelling opportunities in his career in this  space and continues to believe that this area seems to always have exciting  breakthrough opportunities to enhance our health and quality of life. In approximately the past seven years, Marty personally and through entities he manages, was introduced to a compelling medical/surgical adhesive. Over the past five years, Marty became more actively involved and along with his brother, he was named the Co-Chairman of Optmed.  In December of 2016, Optmed finally received FDA approval of its submitted application.

Marty has had the benefit of family members in the oil industry  and frequently sees opportunities in the oil business. Over the past 10 years, oil seemed to have tremendous volatility and with volatility often comes opportunity. Oil seemed to have peaked between  2008-09 at $140-150 price per barrel of WTI and then traded as low as  approx $30-35, in early 2016. (Crude Oil Prices 10-Year / Crude Oil Prices 3-Year)

Through entities he manages (family related, unrelated and others), Marty was part of a small group that led the acquisition of a Legacy Reserves LP (NASDAQ: LGCY) Mid-continent assets. Marty continues to look opportunistically at distressed operators in the oil and gas space.

Marty has always had a keen eye scouting out opportunities for established brands as well as good brands which are in some sort of difficult situation. While the earlier portion of this bio provides additional deals in which Marty participated, in the end of 2012,  Marty, along with his brother, led a fund they manage into negotiating  and purchasing a long time brand of Johnson and Johnson and successfully acquired the brand, Viactiv, well known for their calcium chews sold in major retailers and pharmacies across the country such as CVS, Walgreens and Walmart. He and his brother managed the business until they negotiated a successful exit to a division of Texas Pacific Group in the 4th quarter of 2016.

Marty remains actively interested in various companies and continues to seek out exciting opportunities. From fast growing brands unable to financially support their growth prospects, or distressed companies in need of restructuring, rebranding and streamlining of business operations, Marty has over 30-years of boots on the ground experience identifying opportunities with restructurings, distressed organizations and bankruptcies.

Recent Work

OF MARTIN SANDS
TRUSTED BY GLOBAL BRANDS

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