Warren Equity has closed two acquisitions in the arborist services sector with the buys of Gunnison Tree Services and New Urban Forestry.
Gunnison Tree Services is a provider of tree and vegetation management services to utilities, governments, residential, and commercial customers in the Southeastern United States.
The company has a specialization in highly technical tree removals and counts as its customers Georgia Power, SCANA Energy, and the Georgia Department of Transportation. Gunnison was founded in 1999 by CEO Matt Cathell and is headquartered in Atlanta.
Similar to Gunnison, New Urban Forestry is an Athens, Georgia-headquartered provider of residential and commercial tree removal and recycling, pruning, cabling and bracing, and lightning protection services.
Warren partnered on this transaction with Mr. Cathell who is maintaining an equity ownership position in the company and will continue to serve as the CEO of the business. New Urban Forestry will operate as a subsidiary of Gunnison.
“We chose to partner with Warren Equity because of their knowledge of the utility services industry and experience in building and scaling similar types of businesses,” said Mr. Cathell. “We are excited to bring in a partner who understands our business and who will provide valuable stewardship during our next phase of growth.”
“We are excited to partner with Matt and the Gunnison team. Our firm has conducted in-depth research on the vegetation management industry over the last few years and identified Gunnison as a high-value target due to its strong reputation for technical expertise, safety, and reliability,” said Michael Zhang, a vice president at Warren Equity. “Gunnison provides critical services to maintain aging electric infrastructure, and we believe we are well-positioned to help the company grow both organically and through accretive acquisitions.”
The buy of Gunnison is Warren’s tenth platform investment since its formation and its sixth Fund II platform. The most recent four platforms are Meridian Waste, a Georgia-based provider of non-hazardous solid waste collection, transfer, recycling, and disposal services (April 2018); SIMCO, a North Carolina-based provider of corrosion protection services (May 2018); StormTrap, an Illinois-based designer and engineer of stormwater management systems (December 2018); and Magneto & Diesel Injector Service (DBA M&D Distributors), a Texas-based aftermarket distributor of parts and components for maintaining and repairing diesel-powered engines (December 2018).
Warren Equity invests from $5 million to $40 million in North American-based companies that have from $3 million to $15 million of EBITDA and total enterprise value of less than $150 million. Sectors of interest include industrial, infrastructure, and business services. In January 2019, the firm closed its second fund at its $310 million hard cap. The firm was founded in 2015 and is based in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
Private Equity Professional | July 8, 2020
MKH Capital Partners has hired Thomas Welter to lead Clean Streak Ventures, its express car wash platform company.
Prior to joining Clean Streak in February 2020, Mr. Welter was the chief operating officer of Minnesota-headquartered Lift Brands, a franchiser of gyms, yoga and kickboxing brands including Snap Fitness, 9Round, Yoga Fit, Steele Fitness and Fitness OnDemand. Earlier, from 2010 to 2017, he was the vice president of franchising for Byrider, an Indiana-based franchiser of used-car dealerships. Mr. Welter has also worked at Yum! Brands!, 24 Hour Fitness, and Avis. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska and played two seasons with the National Football League’s St. Louis Cardinals.
“We are thrilled to partner with Tom – who has an excellent track record in building membership-centered, multi-unit businesses – in order to scale Clean Streak in its existing markets and new MSAs,” said Annette Rodriguez, a managing partner at MKH.
Fresh Direct Produce, a distributor of fresh, ethnic, tropical, organic, and specialty produce and a portfolio company of HKW, has acquired Mike and Mike’s Organics.
Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, 
“The partnership between Fresh Direct and Mike and Mike’s further expands Fresh Direct’s Canadian distribution footprint, but just as importantly we believe it brings an understanding of the products and operations for a critical region,” said Tom Shaw, a vice president at HKW. “As the third add-on acquisition to the Fresh Direct platform, HKW’s emphasis on health and wellness remains a key area of focus, and this add-on further strengthens our commitment to the sector.”
Charlesbank Capital Partners has held a $700 million, oversubscribed, and hard cap closing of Charlesbank Credit Opportunities Fund II LP. The new fund’s original target was $500 million.
“We are grateful for the support and confidence in Charlesbank from our investors, both existing and new, and are pleased with the success of this fundraising, particularly during these unprecedented times,” said Maggie Sahlman, the head of investor relations at Charlesbank.
“Our credit strategy is particularly well-suited to the current investment environment and we have a strong capital base to invest in the compelling credit opportunities in our pipeline,” said Brandon White, a managing director at Charlesbank and co-chair of the credit investment committee.
“We believe the attractiveness of our credit strategy stems from our differentiated investment approach which leverages Charlesbank’s proprietary insights, extensive network and strong diligence capabilities in a fully integrated investment process,” said Sandor Hau, a managing director at Charlesbank and the head of the firm’s credit team. “We expect to see continued opportunity to invest in mispriced credit risk and look forward to putting our investors’ capital to work with the goal of generating attractive, risk-adjusted returns.”