Casco Bay Creamery Co-Founders Alicia Menard and Jennell Carter are flanked by Michelle Neujahr, who emceed the event, and Steve deCastro, CEO of Gorham Savings Bank.

A Scarborough-based company that makes grass-fed butter and cream cheese has won the 2019 LaunchPad business pitch competition and its $50,000 first-place cash prize.

Casco Bay Creamery, which was a returning finalist from 2015’s competition, was chosen by a panel of three independent judges from among five finalists who pitched their businesses Tuesday evening before a full house at the University of Southern Maine’s Hannaford Hall. LaunchPad is organized by Gorham Savings Bank.

Casco Bay Creamery beat out CourseStorm, GO Lab, Sidewalk Buttler, and Vintage Maine Kitchen.

Another company, MyBodyModel, won the Emerging Idea Award, which came with a $10,000 cash prize and $10,000 worth of marketing, business development, and public relations services.

The judges for this year’s event were Ford Reiche, co-founder of Safe Handling Inc.; Chris Claudio, CEO and co-founder of Logically (formerly known as WinXnet); and Catherine Cloudman, shareholder and board member of Village Fertility Pharmacy.

“The quality of pitches this year was incredible,” said Steve deCastro, president and CEO of Gorham Savings Bank. “Congratulations to Casco Bay Creamery for emerging as the winner in front of this year’s record crowd.”

Since founding LaunchPad, the bank has granted more than $300,000 in to Maine entrepreneurs. Last year’s LaunchPad winner was North Spore, a Westbrook-based company that grows and sells mushrooms.

Butter Business

When Co-founders Alicia Menard and Jennell Carter pitched their company at LaunchPad in 2015, they were selling their butter direct to consumers at farmers markets. On Tuesday evening, they shared that its products are now distributed to more than 250 stores across six states. It has also expanded into contract manufacturing, including for a butter for Martha Stewart that’s sold on QVC. The partners declined to share how much revenue had grown in the past four years.

“We’re happy with our trajectory,” Menard said. “What we’re working on now is improving our margins. We’ve already been able to cut costs of goods by one third.”

“And that’s without sacrificing anything in terms of quality,” Carter added.

They said the $50,000 would be used to purchase a piece of machinery that will enable them to go from packing three to six units a minute to more than 30, according to Menard.