Platte River Equity has acquired Turf Care Supply in partnership with the company’s senior management team.
Turf Care is a formulator and blender of coated nitrogen and other professional lawn care products including fertilizers, controlled release fertilizers, control products, combination products (herbicide/insecticide) and soil amendments (soil that has been modified with additional materials to improve its physical properties).
Turf Care sells its products under a range of brand names including TCS GrowStar, TurfCare, Dimensions, Duration, and AMP-XC. In addition to its branded products, Turf Care also manufactures a variety of private and national branded products. Turf Care’s products are sold to distributors and blenders serving the commercial, residential and golf end markets in the Northeast, Mid-Central, Mid- Atlantic and Southern sectors of the United States.
Platte River’s buy of Turf Care also includes Allied Nutrients, a division within Turf Care focused on supplying enhanced efficiency fertilizer.
Turf Care (originally known as LESCO (NASDAQ: LSCO)) was founded in 1974 and was acquired by Platinum Equity in 2005. In 2015, the senior management team of Turf Care – including CEO William Milowitz, CFO Jeffrey Bailey, and COO Mark Mangan – acquired the company from Platinum. Today, the company is headquartered near Cleveland in Brunswick, Ohio with four manufacturing facilities in Ohio (2), Massachusetts, and Florida.
“Platte River’s cultural fit and relevant experience were important to our team as we chose a partner to support the company in its next phase of growth,” said Mr. Milowitz.
Platte River previously invested in the agriscience sector with the May 2015 acquisition of Illinois-based Profile Products, a maker of products that are used for soil modification, erosion and sediment control, and vegetation establishment. Platte River exited this investment in December 2018 through a sale to Pittsburgh-based Incline Equity Partners.
“Turf Care has built an excellent reputation as a leader in the turf and ornamental market and will be a strong addition to Platte River’s portfolio of companies,” said Kris Whalen, a managing director at Platte River. “We look forward to helping management capitalize on Turf Care’s organic growth and acquisition opportunities.”
Platte River invests in lower middle-market companies that have annual revenue of between $20 million and $250 million and EBITDA ranging from $7 million to $30 million. Sectors of interest include aerospace and transportation; energy products and services; industrial products and services; and agriculture and chemicals. Platte River was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Equity for the investment in Turf Care was from the firm’s fourth fund, Platte River Equity IV LP, which closed in June 2017 at its hard cap of $625 million.
Citizens M&A Advisory was the financial advisor to Turf Care on this transaction.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | January 13, 2022
LFM Capital has acquired a new platform with the buy of SureKap, a manufacturer of packaging machinery.
“We are excited about the opportunity to partner with the entire SureKap team,” said Dan Shockley, a managing director at LFM. “Greg has done an outstanding job over the past 30+ years developing SureKap into a leading source for high quality packaging equipment. Moreover, we believe the company is very well-positioned to benefit from the adoption of automation across the highly fragmented United States packaging industry and look forward to supporting the team in this next phase of growth.”
“SureKap truly differentiates itself from other packaging machinery manufacturers through its proprietary machinery, extensive product library, and best-in-class engineering support,” said Conner Harris, a managing director at LFM. “Greg has built a business with a unique value proposition, and we are excited to further invest in the company’s technology and team to continue driving that value proposition.”
KPM Analytics, a Union Park Capital portfolio company, has acquired family-owned Bruins Instruments.
“It gives me tremendous pleasure that we could acquire Bruins Instruments,” said Morgan Jones, the managing partner of Union Park. “For anyone who knew Hans Bruins, you know that he had a pride for his technology and a passion for his business which is seldom matched. After years of building a relationship with the owners, we were honored that they would entrust us to shepherd their business after Hans passed away, and we will work tirelessly to advance the business to the potential that Hans and Ingrid had envisioned.”
Sverica Capital Management has promoted Michael Dougherty to principal and Doug Patrican to vice president.
Mr. Dougherty has his undergraduate degree from Brown University, and he currently serves on the boards of directors of Cytracom, a Texas-based provider of cloud-based communications systems; DeFy Security, a Pennsylvania-based provider of cyber security services; Gorilla Logic, a Colorado-based provider of software development and consulting services; and ShadowDragon, a Wyoming-based provider of threat intelligence software.
Mr. Patrican joined Sverica’s Boston office in 2020 and focuses on sourcing and managing the firm’s healthcare investments. He has six years of private equity experience and earned his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his MBA degree from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
