Safe Fleet, a portfolio company of The Sterling Group, has acquired Rear View Safety, a provider of back up camera systems and other video-based road safety products.
Rear View Safety’s products are sold to the commercial fleet and government fleet sectors and are utilized in recreational vehicles, trucks, trailers, commercial vans, construction, emergency, bus and shuttle, agriculture and industrial vehicles. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY (www.rearviewsafety.com).
Safe Fleet was formed in October 2013 when Sterling acquired R•O•M Corporation (ROM) and Specialty Manufacturing (SMI). Both ROM and SMI were portfolio companies of Century Park Capital Partners. Today, Safe Fleet owns a portfolio of brands that serve five markets including: emergency services, bus and rail, truck and trailer, work truck, and industrial. The company has approximately 1,000 employees and has 600,000 square feet of manufacturing space. Safe Fleet is headquartered south of Kansas City in Belton, MO (www.safefleet.net).
The buy of Rear View Safety is the sixth add-on acquisition that Safe Fleet has completed under Sterling’s ownership. “Safe Fleet will continue to pursue strategic growth across the fleet vehicle market, expanding our product offering both organically and through acquisition,” said Gary Rosenthal, a partner at The Sterling Group. “The company has doubled in size under Sterling ownership.”
The Sterling Group targets controlling interests in manufacturing, industrial services and distribution companies that have enterprise values from $100 million to $500 million. The firm emphasizes an operational approach in partnership with management teams to grow and improve the companies it acquires. Sterling was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Houston (www.sterling-group.com).
“The addition of Rear View Safety expands Safe Fleet’s leadership position in specialty video products for fleet vehicles in North America and creates one of the top suppliers worldwide. The company’s RVS product line is complementary to Safe Fleet’s existing video products and positions Safe Fleet as a leading video supplier in all of its fleet end markets,” said John Knox, President and CEO of Safe Fleet. “This acquisition supports our vision to build the leading global provider of safety solutions for fleet vehicles.”
© 2016 Private Equity Professional • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 5-25-16
