Former J.P. Morgan banker launches Spinel with $500 mln target: source

Spinel, launched by co-founder and CEO Troy Taylor, is moving to close the purchase of Coca-Cola bottling operations in central Florida, the person told Buyouts.

Taylor will re-franchise Coca-Cola Refreshments in Tampa and St. Petersburg, and elsewhere in central Florida in an acquisition of the business from the Fortune 500 company for an undisclosed sum, according to a prepared statement from earlier this year. The new, independent company will be called Coca-Cola Bottling of Central Florida, or Coca-Cola Central Florida.

A spokeswoman for Coke said the deal is expected to close in 2015. An email to Spinel Investment Company by Buyouts inquiring about the firm wasn’t immediately answered. The company has not filed a Form D for its first private equity pool.

Taylor’s background includes working as a vice president at J.P. Morgan, where he led more than 30 middle-market buyout and growth equity deals, according to a biography published online by Bloomberg Businessweek.

“I was part of a team that focused on franchisees and suppliers mainly in the Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, McDonald’s, and Burger King systems, among others,” Taylor said earlier this year in an interview on the Coca-Cola deal in Beverage Digest. “That experience was my first taste of the Coke system and the very best time I had in banking. When I started working with Coke bottlers, I immediately knew that I wanted to be one, and I’ve been on this journey to join the Coke system ever since.”

In September, Coca-Cola said Coke executive Reginald Goins would join Coca-Cola Central Florida as president and chief operating officer. With headquarters in Tampa, the company will own exclusive franchise rights to market, promote, distribute and sell Coca-Cola products in the region.