The W.W. Williams Company, a portfolio company of One Equity Partners, has acquired Auto Safety House. One Equity Partners acquired a majority equity interest in W.W. Williams in August of last year, investing alongside the Williams family and the company’s management team.
Auto Safety House (ASH) is a provider of vehicle maintenance service and parts for trucks, pre-owned and new buses, and other vehicles. ASH, which serviced more than 2,500 customers in 2016, also offers mobile services, and serves as a distributor to nearly 30 equipment manufacturers specializing in high-end truck body, parts and equipment that include the Knapheide and Reading brands. ASH is also the Arizona distributor for Thomas Built Buses, a bus manufacturer headquartered in High Point, NC and a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks North America. ASH was founded in 1941 and has three facilities in Arizona – Phoenix (headquarters), Tucson, and Holbrook (www.autosafetyhouse.com).
“ASH provided an excellent opportunity to expand W.W. Williams’ relationships with key OEMs in the Southwest, add expertise in retail parts, and bring traditionally outsourced fleet maintenance and repair work in-house,” said Matt Hughes, Director at One Equity Partners. “The complementary offerings make this a perfect addition.”
The buy of Auto Safety House is the second add-on completed by One Equity Partners for W.W. Williams. In January 2017, the company acquired Desert Fleet-Serv, a Phoenix-based provider of onsite maintenance and repair services for diesel trucks and trailers (www.desertfleet-serv.com).
W.W. Williams provides service and repair, OEM product sales, and supply chain management services to the industrial power products market. The company’s products and services include diesel engines, transmissions, bumper-to-bumper truck repair, transport refrigeration, power generation systems, and supply chain logistics services. Customers include on-highway truck fleets, off-highway equipment users, the US Department of Defense, vehicle and equipment OEMs, commercial facility owners, and marine equipment owners. W.W. Williams was founded in 1912 and is headquartered near Columbus in Grandview Heights, OH (www.wwwilliams.com).
“This transaction significantly expands our market share, geographic presence, sales volume, end-to-end specialty service maintenance and repair offerings; and it enhances our ‘bumper to bumper’ customer relationships,” said John Simmons, Chief Executive Officer of W.W. Williams.
One Equity Partners is a middle-market private equity firm that invests in industrial, healthcare, and technology companies that are based in North America and Europe. Since 2001, the firm has invested in more than 140 transactions worldwide. One Equity, founded in 2001, spun out of JP Morgan in 2015. The firm has offices in New York and Chicago, and an advisory office in Frankfurt, Germany (www.oneequity.com).
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | February 17, 2017
