Elverta, California, U.S.A.-based Sterling Caviar entered receivership in April 2024, with creditors claiming the company owes them more than USD 23 million (EUR 21.5 million).
Numerous lawsuits involving the company dating back to 2020 reveal significant financial issues plagued it for years, and may continue to complicate its existence as its ownership pursues a path forward.
In 2020, Ken Beer, the owner of Galt Fish Farm, who does business as The Fishery Inc., was sued after attempting to sever his contract to raise some of the sturgeon used by Stolt Sea Farm, which founded Sterling Caviar in 1983. Beer said in a declaration submitted as part of the lawsuit Sterling Caviar shuffled through six different presidents or general managers in six years leading up to February 2019, according to the Sacramento Business Journal.
“Sterling struggled to identify and execute a coherent business plan,” Beer said in a declaration submitted as part of the lawsuit. “Sterling's revolving door at management meant that Sterling lost a lot of its institutional knowledge, and we at The Fishery had to put a lot of time and patience into attempting to maintain our good historical relationship.”
Beer and Stolt Sea Farm did not respond to requests for comment from the Business Journal. The Fishery ultimately sided with Beer in the dispute, and The Fishery was able to terminate its growing contract with Sterling Caviar, which had been in place since the 1980s. Beer said he pursued an exit due to operational dysfunction at the company, including rapid changes in business plans leading to the culling of sturgeon before they were mature enough to be harvested for caviar. Beer said he had also heard Sterling Caviar was being sold by parent company Stolt-Nielsen to Hyde Road Agricultural Associates, owned by New York real estate entrepreneur Eugene Fernandez. That deal closed in October 2020 at a price of USD 6.2 million (then EUR 5.8 million).
Fernandez sought to combine Sterling’s operations with those at Lazy Q Fish Ranch – a 160-acre fish farm in Dixon, California, which he had owned since 2014 – under the umbrella of Hyde Caviar LLC. The deal was made possible through a USD 14 million (then EUR 12.9 million) loan Hyde Road Agricultural Associates received from CapitalView Investment Partners and Hunter Street Partners. Sterling Caviar had been loss-making for Stolt Sea Farm, and the onset of the Covid pandemic exacerbated the financial problems besetting the firm. Fernandez told SeafoodSource at the time of the takeover he was confident he could turn around Sterling’s financial picture.
“It was managed successfully for many years, but in the last five years, they just mismanaged it,” he said. “With a new team, new employees, and guidance from outside people in the industry, we can take it back to its position as the number-one caviar producer in the United States.”
However after the purchase Cintas Corp, a uniform and janitorial supply vendor, sued both Stolt Sea Farm and Hyde Caviar in 2021, alleging …
