{"id":26237,"date":"2024-08-08T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/american-heritage-railways-purchases-share-in-rocky-mountain-chocolate-factory\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:35:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:35:59","slug":"american-heritage-railways-purchases-share-in-rocky-mountain-chocolate-factory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/american-heritage-railways-purchases-share-in-rocky-mountain-chocolate-factory\/","title":{"rendered":"American Heritage Railways purchases share in Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Durango flagship store on Main Avenue in Durango saw a 34% increase in sales during the third fiscal quarter. Pictured here is the business\u2019 corporate headquarters in Bodo Industrial Park. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory sold about 13% of the company\u2019s shares to American Heritage Railways on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The move is the latest in a whirlwind of decisions the Durango-based confectionery company has made this summer to firmly plant its roots in the community and build capital for its strategic plan.<\/p>\n

The total agreed upon purchase is around $2.2 million for 1.25 million shares at a common stock price of $1.75 per share.<\/p>\n

AHR purchased 1 million of the shares while sitting RMCF board members purchased 250,000 of the shares.<\/p>\n

Rocky Mountain\u2019s stock price has dropped about 80% over the last five years, going from a five-year high of about $9.50 per share in September 2019 to just $1.75 as of Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis offering reflects an initial step for us to strengthen our balance sheet and provides the working capital needed to further advance our updated three-year strategic plan,\u201d said Interim CEO Jeff Geygan. \u201cWe are in the final stages of completing a separate non-equity financing that we believe will provide us with the necessary capital required to execute our plans and return RMCF to a state of sustainable growth and profitability.\u201d<\/p>\n

During RMCF\u2019s first fiscal quarter ending May 31, the company lost $1.6 million from continuing operations, mostly because of personnel turnover.<\/p>\n

The company continues on its path to build a local foundation that Geygan says was lost when executives weren\u2019t working in the community. The locally driven initiative was one that influenced the company to hire former Ballantine Communications Inc. CEO Carrie Cass in July. (BCI also owns The Durango Herald.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

But now it is taking on local investors. From both parties\u2019 perspective, the investment made sense. American Heritage and RMCF benefit from Durango\u2019s tourism market and a RMCF retail store is located within a quarter-mile of the train station. Geygan said the emphasis on local initiatives will only continue the build the Rocky Mountain brand.<\/p>\n

And with 2 million American Heritage customers, there are plenty of cross-branding and collaboration opportunities for which to take advantage.<\/p>\n

Neither party has revealed how the two companies will collaborate in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAHR is one of the most renowned organizations in Durango and touches more than 2 million customers per year through directly owned railroads, historic attractions, and the licensing of special events at over 50 additional properties,\u201d Geygan said.<\/p>\n

Those licensing rights include The Polar Express and Peanuts by Schulz, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir customer base is a natural fit for our premium chocolate and confectionery products,\u201d Geygan added.<\/p>\n

Railroad CEO Al Harper said American Heritage has always been about family first and profit second. While investing in Rocky Mountain was a smart business decision, it was another way for American Heritage to embrace the Durango community, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always admired Rocky Mountain Chocolate because it\u2019s a hometown company,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably the only real public company that\u2019s based here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shares were sold in a private placement \u2013 a sale of stock shares or bonds to preselected investors rather than publicly on the open market.<\/p>\n

\u201cRocky Mountain Chocolate Factory has such a rich history, and truly its foundation is built right here in Durango,\u201d said American Heritage General Manager John Harper. \u201cWe want to see this company develop and prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n

tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Executives say two companies are perfect fit for collaboration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,2932,950,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-corporations","tag-durango","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79280,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26237\/revisions\/79280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26237"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}