Audax Private Equity has sold its portfolio company Cozzini Bros., a knife sharpening and rental services company, to Birch Hill Equity Partners. Cozzini’s management team will maintain a significant investment in the business. Audax acquired Cozzini in August 2010.
Cozzini is one of the larger knife sharpening rental and exchange companies in the United States and provides cutlery and other sharpening services to over 40,000 restaurants, grocery stores, institutional kitchens and other foodservice establishments. Since 2010, the company has completed 31 acquisitions of other knife sharpening businesses, expanding its serviceable geography into the Mid-Atlantic, Pacific Northwest and Southeast. This expansion has allowed Cozzini to partner with large restaurant chains to service all of their locations nationally. Cozzini was founded in 1905 by Giuseppe Cozzini and is headquartered near Chicago in Des Plaines, IL (www.cozzinibros.com)
“Over the last six years, we have successfully expanded our national presence, invested in our infrastructure and transformed the cutlery services industry by offering consistent service, quality, and professionalism nationwide,” said Ed Finnegan, Chief Executive Officer of Cozzini. “We look forward to leveraging the progress we have made and expect to accelerate our growth through additional acquisitions, additional national partnerships with our customers, and a significant focus on growing our outside salesforce to make Cozzini’s product and service offering better known in the marketplace.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Ed and his team to drive the next stage of Cozzini’s growth by continuing the company’s acquisition program and increasing their outside sales efforts,” said Pierre Schuurmans, COO and Partner at Birch Hill.
Birch Hill Equity Partners invests in mid-market companies that are valued from C$30 million to C$600 million. The firm is presently investing from its fifth private equity fund, Birch Hill Equity Partners V, which closed in January 2016 with C$1.3 billion of capital commitments. Birch Hill was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Toronto (www.birchhillequity.com).
The Audax Group makes control investments of $10 million to $100 million in middle market companies with transaction values of $25 million to $500 million. Sectors of interest include industrial manufacturing; energy; outsourced industrial services; consumer products; healthcare devices and services; non-asset based logistics; technology; aerospace & defense; business services; and direct marketing. The firm was founded in 1999 and has offices in Boston, New York and Menlo Park (www.audaxgroup.com).
Chicago-based investment bank Lincoln International (www.lincolninternational.com) advised Cozzini on this transaction.
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | March 13, 2017
