Pacific Grove Spice Company is a profitable, rapidly growing and highly levered firm operating in the spice industry. In spite of retaining all its net income, the company has utilized significant amounts of debt finance to fund growth, and Pacific's lenders are pressuring the company to reduce its debt levels. In addition, the company has a number of available opportunities and decisions to make. These are the questions that you must answer in a memo to the Senior Management of Pacific Grove Spice Company: 

1. Based on Pacific Grove Spice Company's forecasted financial statements, are its profitable operations sufficient to quickly bring it into compliance with the banks requirements?

2. Should Pacific Grove Spice Company acquire High Country Seasonings? Is the acquisition of High Country a good investment opportunity? What are the free cash flows, risk-adjusted cost of capital and value? Is it a positive NPV decision for Pacific? Can the acquisition be made and still enable Pacific Grove to meet the banks requirements?