USA - Heartwood Partners announces the acquisition of NativeSeed Group, a pioneer in providing native seed and erosion control solutions

Heartwood Partners LLC has announced the acquisition of NativeSeed Group (the "Company") from Victor Schaff, a pioneer of the native seed industry. Mr. Schaff founded S&S Seeds nearly 50-years ago and grew the business organically and via acquisition. The management team that was assembled by Mr. Schaff will continue to lead the Company.

Headquartered in Carpinteria, CA, NativeSeed Group is a provider of native seeds and erosion control products used in land reclamation and conservation, as well as various construction, commercial, and consumer applications. The Company goes to market under various brands, including Granite Seed, S&S Seeds and Pacific Coast Seed, among others, each of which provides native seeds to a diverse group of landowners, energy companies, state & federal agencies, environmental engineers, and contractors, with a particularly strong presence throughout the Western U.S. Additional brands such as Kamprath Seed and Bruce Seed serve the agriculture market with cover crop seed blends to assist in pollination and soil health. The Company's Nature's Seed brand sells flower, turf, hunting, and grazing seed blends to homeowners, hobby farmers, and smaller rural landowners throughout the United States. Please visit the NativeSeed Group website for more information on the Company's brands and their solutions.

NativeSeed Group utilizes a vertically integrated sourcing and production platform comprised of farming, wildland collection, and procurement of native grass, wildflower, and shrub seeds. Farming of seed occurs on four strategically located farms across the Western U.S., including the Bruce Seed Farm in Montana, L&H Seed Farm in Washington, Hedgerow Farms in northern California, and S&S Seed Farm in southern California.

Rob Wendell, NativeSeed Group's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are extremely excited to partner with the Heartwood team given their experience investing in agriculture-related businesses and strong track record in growing niche businesses. We believe that Heartwood's operational expertise and industry experience will be key in refining and executing our strategic growth plan."

"We are excited to partner with NativeSeed Group and its management team. The Company has developed a highly differentiated, vertically integrated platform to provide solutions for its customers to help establish native plant communities that are appropriate for their local geographies and climates. Native plant communities are hearty, more draught tolerant, promote diverse habitats, and help restore lands damaged by development or natural disasters," said James Sidwa, Partner at Heartwood Partners. He further added, "NativeSeed Group is a perfect fit with our focus and experience investing in the agriculture sector and companies with strong ESG foundations as well as our approach towards growth through investment in people, processes, and add-on acquisitions. We intend to drive future growth by leveraging the Company's strong market position to expand existing and new geographies and customer-types both organically and through strategic add-on acquisitions."

Heartwood Partners (www.HeartwoodPartners.com), located in Norwalk, Connecticut, is a middle market private equity firm founded in 1982. Heartwood is differentiated by a unique lower-leverage, distribution-yielding approach to private equity designed to create equity partnerships with continuing management. We currently manage over $1.7 billion in investments and commitments and its principals have invested in more than 100 platform and add-on acquisitions. Presently, Heartwood is investing from Heartwood Partners Fund IV, LP which is focused primarily on family and management-owned manufacturers, value-added distributors, food, chemical, consumer products and business service companies.

NativeSeed Group (www.NativeSeedGroup.com) The NativeSeed Group is the only truly vertically integrated native seed company in North America with over 4,000 irrigated farm acres, the industry's most comprehensive wild-land seed collection operation and complete seed cleaning and conditioning facilities. NativeSeed offers a wide range of seed and erosion control solutions to suit any project need from large government projects to small-scale landscaping applications.  During the nearly 50-years in business, no company provides their customers with a breadth and depth inventory, consultative expertise, and unparalleled just-in-time capabilities.