HighGrove Companies has acquired its first platform with the buy of All Star Driver Education.
All Star is a provider of classroom, online, and behind-the-wheel driver education services to teens, adults and seniors. The company has 97 locations and provides its teaching services across 16 states. All Star is headquartered near Detroit in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
All Star was founded in 1997 by Tom Wall to continue the efforts of his father, William “Pop” Wall, who had been training new drivers for more than 31 years. Today, the company is led by CEO Brent Wall, the son of Tom Wall and grandson of Pop Wall. Since its founding, All Star has used its proprietary, state-certified curricula, training materials, and methods to train more than 200,000 new drivers.
“I’m proud of the business and the brand we’ve built at All Star and I’m confident HighGrove is the right partner to help us continue our growth,” said Brent Wall who is retaining an ownership stake in the company. “We look forward to working with HighGrove as we expand into new markets to help improve the safety of additional generations of drivers.”
“This is an ideal first investment for HighGrove,” said Sean Roberts, founder and managing partner of HighGrove. “All Star is a great lower middle-market company with lots of opportunity. The company fits squarely in HighGrove’s investment criteria, and we’re near each other, which will help us leverage HighGrove’s experience in multi-site consumer services to build the business and drive continued expansion.”
HighGrove was founded in February 2019 by Mr. Roberts, a former partner at Detroit-based Huron Capital. The firm makes majority investments in companies that have revenues from $10 million to $50 million and EBITDA of $2 million to $10 million. Sectors of interest include consumer products, consumer services, and business services. HighGrove is based near Detroit in Birmingham, Michigan.
“All Star has a great foundation as a leader in the driver education market. It has a level of scale and sophistication that provides a competitive advantage to offer a superior experience to both students and parents,” added Mr. Roberts. “We’re extremely excited about partnering with the All Star team to accelerate growth of existing locations, expand our footprint with new locations, and further develop our presence online.”
HighGrove was supported on this transaction with financing from First Financial Bank and Charter Growth Capital, which also made an equity co-investment.
“Charter Growth Capital Fund was the ideal financial partner in this transaction. The Charter team has deep transaction experience in the lower middle market, which made for a seamless closing process, and they will be invaluable as we work to build the company,” said Mr. Roberts. The Charter investment team was led by Managing Director Hector Bultynck, who will serve on All Star’s board of directors.
Birmingham, Michigan-based Angle Advisors was the investment banking advisor to All Star on this transaction.
The buy of All Star closed on November 14th. Following this acquisition, on November 27th, HighGrove closed on its second platform company with the buy of Express Home Services, a Phoenix-based provider of replacement flooring for the residential and commercial markets. HighGrove made this investment in partnership with Valesco Industries, Brookside Mezzanine Partners, and Longhouse Partners.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | December 12, 2019
