UT FCU recently closed its first SBA Patriot Express loan with Smoky Mountain Cheese LLC. Pictured from left are Debbie Jones, president/CEO of UTFCU; Jonathan Patrick, senior vice president of lending, UTFCU; Randall Mitchell of Smoky Mountain Cheese; Myra Hamilton, consumer lending manager at UTFCU, and Bill Beres, executive vice president of marketing and sales, Smoky Mountain Cheese.
Smoky Mountain Cheese LLC will be able to put its product in more grocery stores thanks to UT Federal Credit Union.
The $193 million credit union in Knoxville, Tenn., recently closed its first SBA Patriot Express Pilot loan with Smoky Mountain Cheese, a business owned by Randal Mitchell and Steve Koplow. The Sevierville, Tenn.-based company makes Smoky Mountain Beer cheese spread.
The product is in more than 2,700 grocery stores east of the Mississippi River and with the help of the Patriot Express loan to infuse working capital into the business, that number will increase to 5,000 grocery stores in early 2012, according to UT FCU.
As of July, the SBA said it had provided more than $633 million Patriot loans to 7,650 veterans. The loans can be used to start or expand a business.
