Following a Chapter-7 Bankruptcy filing, on April 19th, Cooks Venture Poultry Inc. will be wound up with no property available to pay creditors including venture capital firm Cultivian Sandbox.
The company was established in 2018 by Matt Wadiak, an ardent environmentalist with a questionable business record. The intent was to establish an environmentally sustainable broiler production operation using heritage strains with inherently low growth potential. Product was to be marketed through a direct-to-consumer channel.
Despite optimistic projections of demand and price point and an apparently unrealistic cost of production, the enterprise foundered as expected given the highly speculative business model. The demise of the Company was inevitable despite the eleventh-hour appointment of Blake Evans as CEO.
The dissolution of the company has left 90,000 growing birds on farms in the vicinity of Decatur, AR. operated by contractor-shareholders, without provision to to pay for feed or to arrange for processing and marketing.
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