Edward Benford

Benford Capital Partners is a Chicago-based private equity investment firm focused on leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations of smaller, lower middle market companies. The BCP team has over 60 years of combined experience buying and scaling businesses. The BCP Team is a group of committed investment and operating professionals with significant experience acquiring, building, and operating lower middle market companies. The team utilizes its collective experience, background, knowledge base, and networks to help each portfolio company achieve long-term success. BCP partners with founders, family owners and managers to grow smaller companies over time. As engaged stewards and partners, we seek to build businesses and invest in people while preserving each company’s legacy and culture. We pride ourselves in being straightforward, consistent, forthright and partnership oriented. We strongly believe in a collaborative approach to building long-term value, with day-to-day decisions left to management. Toward that end, we take an active role at the Board of Directors level, focusing on growth opportunities, acquisitions, recruiting, strategy and financing. In situations involving Owner/Operator transitions, we often will draw upon our relationships with experienced outside managers seeking to take an active full-time role in a company. Our investment time horizon is flexible and aligned with management’s goals over shorter or longer timeframes. We believe in long-term value creation and have longer average investment periods.

Founded in 2008, Atlas RFID Solutions is a value-added B2B eCommerce distributor of radio frequency identification (“RFID”) tags, readers, and equipment. Atlas is the largest independent “pure play” distributor of RFID products in North America.

Education Services Group Holdings, LLC (“ESG”) is a leading provider of outsourced sales and related services, primarily for large software companies. The company offers comprehensive outsourcing solutions focused on the sales, registration and administrative services that are essential to education and training delivery.

Ray Allen Manufacturing, LLC is the leading manufacturer and direct marketer of professional canine training products to the law enforcement, military and working dog niche markets in the U.S. The company sells primarily via catalog to canine professionals in law enforcement, military, homeland security, correctional, professional security and drug enforcement fields.

Saco Foods is a branded, niche-market leading food products company selling primarily to supermarkets and mass retailers in the U.S. Founded in 1973, Saco’s primary products include Dolci Frutta, a chocolate hard-shell dessert dip for fruit, nuts, and other snacks, as well as powdered instant milk, powdered dry buttermilk, and baking cocoa sold under the Saco Pantry family of brands. Founded in 1991 and based in Danville, CA, California Sun Dry is the niche-market leading brand in sun dried tomato products (jarred and bagged) sold to supermarkets, club and mass retailers in the United States. Saco Foods acquired California Sun Dry from its founders in October 2018.