LaSalle expansion funded.

LaSalle Ice Cream, a new player in the frozen dessert field through recent acquisitions of New York-based LaSalle Ice Cream and Pittsburgh's Reinhold Ice Cream Company, has entered into a Funding Agreement with Grammar Capital LLP. As per the agreement, Grammar Capital will assist LaSalle in raising approximately $50,000,000 through a combination of equity and debt financing. The funds will be used to complete planned acquisitions with various ice cream distribution companies.

Grammar Capital is a relatively new investment firm. However, the principals of the London-based firm are reported to have "a vast number of years experience in raising capital for companies with strong business models and management teams."

Marco Del Carlo, a managing partner with Grammar Capital, was quoted as saying, "We think that this is a very exciting opportunity and we are very much looking forward to working with you (LaSalle) on this fund raise." Del Carlo is also a Director at Suzannes Files LLC and Chairman and CEO at Roadmap Ventures Limited.

As previously reported in Ice Cream Reporter, the acquisitions of LaSalle in New York and Reinhold in are the first of several acquisitions that the new LaSalle corporation expects to make over the next few years. The company was incorporated in Nevada in August 1990 under the name Service Systems International Ltd. Through 2002, it was a manufacturer of ultraviolet disinfection systems for wastewater. That year it added an additional business focus, the manufacturing and marketing of a primary, alternative, and emergency power cell.

In 2005, the company's directors voted to change its business focus and move into restaurant franchising by signing an agreement with American Restaurant Development Company to identify opportunities in restaurant franchising. At the time of the ice cream company acquisitions, LaSalle's fast-casual/full-service franchise restaurants included Kokopelli Sonoran Grill, Comstock Jake's, Fit "N Healthy, Q's House of Barbecue, Cousin Vinnie's Italian Diner, and Kirby Foo's Asian Grill.