The Profit - Bentley's Corner Barkery Update

Tonight on the season premiere of The Profit Marcus Lemonis is in Chicago, Illinois with hopes of making a deal with Bentley's Corner Barkery.  Bentley's Corner Barkery is a small chain of natural pet food stores that is growing too quickly for its own good. They also are stubborn in the way they choose the pet food companies that sell in their store.  Marcus needs to help the husband and wife owners "sharpen their focus and strengthen their execution" to make their business more successful.
 
Let's take a look at some information related to Bentley's Corner Barkery as well as what kind of deal was made on the show.

*This episode is a special early premiere with limited commercial interruption that is scheduled to air after the Republican Presidential Debate.  It will re-air on November 3rd in The Profit's usual timeslot on Tuesday's at 10pm ET/PT.

News and Links Related To The Company: 

• Here are some preview videos of the episode from the CNBC website - Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, and Video 4
• Here is the Bentley's Corner Barkery website, and they currently have 7 locations with another opening soon in Westchester, IL.  They promise their pet foods are always all-natural, quality, with no chemical preservatives, no by-products, and no corn, wheat, or soy.
• They offer their products for sale on their website, and they have competitive prices with places such as Amazon, however shipping large bags will cost you a good amount of money vs. Amazon.
• Here is the Bentley's Corner Barkery Facebook Page and Twitter Page.
• Bentley's announced that they are moving their Arlington location (the original location) next year due to not being able to come to an agreement with the landlord.  They are moving about a block away after being in their original location for over 7 years. 
• Pretty much all of their locations of Bentley's Corner Barkery have about a 5-star (out of 5) rating on Yelp (Link).  They also have a ton of 5-star reviews on their Facebook page, so people really love the stores.

The Deal From The Episode Plus Post-Show Updates (this will be updated continually):

• The Deal - $1.7 million in 2 checks. $400,000 equity check for working capital and IT infrastructure and $1.3 million to fund acquisition and the conversion of locations for 40% ownership.  If they pay off the $1.3 million for the acquisition, the ownership stake drops back down to 25%.
• As stated above, their flagship Arlington store will be moving to a location a block away early next year due to not being able come to an agreement with their landlord.
• Fresh Pet food, which is the factory they visited on the show, is not available for sale on the Bentley's website, so it appears they decided not to sell it. 
• The show stated that the Arlington store has increased daily revenue to about $5,000 per day.
• The acquisition talked about on the show is on track to close in January 2016 according to Marcus. (Link) 
• UPDATE 11/5/2015 - The acquisition of the Pet Stuff retail chain by Bentley's Corner Barkery was announced today.  Pet Stuff is in the Chicago area and has 7 locations and with Bentley's 8 locations, it makes for 15 locations combined. (Link) 
• UPDATE 2/11/2016 - Bentley's Corner Barkery changed its name to Bentley's Pet Stuff after the acquisition.  Bentley's Pet Stuff now has 15 locations and 7 more planned.  They also plan to expand to even more locations.
• On the same date, Marcus announced they acquired Paw Pack, which sends healthy pet products monthly, and here is a video of them making a deal.  Also in the video is the plans for Bentley's expansion into other areas such as Milwaukee and Las Vegas. 
• UPDATE 4/7/2016- Bentley's Pet Stuff acquired Milwaukee based pet store The Natural Pet and Bentley's now has 19 locations planned for the Milwaukee area (Link).
• UPDATE 4/12 /2016 - Bentley's Pet Stuff acquired pet products store Zoey's Eatz and Treatz in Willowbrook, IL (Link). 
• UPDATE 4/15/2016 - Bentley's Pet Stuff acquired Chicago based pet store Dogaholics continuing the trend of acquiring pet stores in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. (Link)
• UPDATE 4/22/2016 - Continuing with the acquisitions, Bentley's Pet Stuff acquired Natural Pet Marketplace in Denver, CO and their three locations. They have plans to open eight stores in the Denver area.(Link).
• UPDATE 5/4/2016 - Bentley's Pet Stuff acquired It's A Pet Life retail stores which had two locations in the Minneapolis area.  There are also plans to open 8 to 10 additional locations in the Minneapolis market. (Link)
• UPDATE 5/12/2016 - Bentley's Pet Stuff announced they were planning a major entry into the St. Louis, Missouri market. (Link)
• UPDATE 6/21/2016 - Bentley's Pet Stuff announced they were planning a major entry into the Ohio and Kentucky market with plans to open 12 new construction stores in 2016. (Link)
• UPDATE 11/2017 - Bentley's Pet Stuff now lists 84 locations on their website. (Link)
• UPDATE 11/2017 - On an update episode of the show, Marcus said the stores have about $100 million in revenue and about $5 million in profit this past year.
• UPDATE 3/2018 - An investor in Bentley's filed a lawsuit against Marcus Lemonis claiming he was bullying him to share his stake in the business (Link).  Some details are below:
• Lemonis “regularly commingled” funds from Bentley's with those of other companies he controls.
• Lemonis and the Senafes failed to perform required due diligence as they expanded, which resulted in the loss of “millions of dollars” related to backing out of an acquisition of stores in Ohio and breaking a lease on a store in Minnesota.
• Lemonis dictated Pet Stuff's contracts “in a manner that unreasonably favored” other companies in which Lemonis is also an investor.
• UPDATE 3/2019 - Bentley's closed all of its stores in Indiana and Ohio.  There were 13 in total, 7 in Indiana and 6 in Ohio. (Link)
• UPDATE 3/2019 - Bentley's also closed stores in Colorado, Missouri, and Minnesota.  These plus the ones in Indiana and Ohio mean 17 of their 67 stores closed.  A Milwaukee Business Journal article stated that the closings were "the result of ongoing litigation combined with the chain's expansion into new markets, which has "collectively placed a strain on our resources."

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