Lincolnshire Management has sold Schumacher Electric, a designer, manufacturer, and supplier of power supply products, to Ripple Industries.
Schumacher’s products include battery charging equipment, electric vehicle chargers, jump starters, and other power accessories that are used in automotive, power sports, farm and ranch, lawn care, and marine applications.
The company’s products are sold under the Schumacher brand and several white-label brands (white label products are sold by retailers with their own branding and logo but the products themselves are manufactured by a third party) through more than 60,000 brick-and-mortar distribution points, including the big box, home improvement, specialty aftermarket and hardware outlets, as well as through various online e-commerce platforms. Schumacher, led by CEO Mickey Leech, was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Dallas.
“The management team at Schumacher was a pleasure to work with and never rested, driving the business relentlessly towards higher sales and earnings,” said TJ Maloney, the CEO of Lincolnshire. “Schumacher placed a high priority on e-commerce initiatives as well as introducing a new consumer products line in Europe.”
“Our investment in Schumacher is a perfect example of our proven origination strategy to identify and acquire founder- and family-owned companies and position them for high growth and outsized financial success,” said Phil Kim, a managing director at Lincolnshire. “Mickey Leech joined the company as president within months of our acquisition and shortly thereafter took over as CEO. His leadership has been key to executing a high growth e-commerce initiative.”
“When we invested in Schumacher in October 2020, we teamed with management to reposition the company for strong growth by executing a multipronged strategy,” said Tom Callahan, a managing director at Lincolnshire. “This was a great team effort that drove results with product extensions into aftermarket EV chargers while also creating new channel partners and OEM relationships to increase distribution.”
Lincolnshire is a middle-market private equity firm that manages $1.7 billion of capital and focuses on acquiring companies with $50 million to $500 million in revenue. The firm invests in a wide range of industries but has specific interests in niche manufacturing, distribution, and service businesses. Lincolnshire was founded in 1986 and is investing out of its fifth fund, Lincolnshire Equity Fund V LP. Lincolnshire is headquartered in New York with an additional office in Chicago.
“The Schumacher brand is synonymous with power conversion and enhancing battery life, and we share management’s vision of the big opportunities ahead of it as global transportation needs evolve and put greater demands on battery maintenance and charging solutions,” said William Bishop of Ripple Industries. “We will move aggressively with Mickey and the Schumacher team to capitalize on the exciting growth opportunities across both its existing core products and emerging technology for the electric vehicle market.”
Los Angeles-based Ripple Industries is a family office founded by Lance Milken, a former senior partner at Apollo Global Management. Lance Milken is the son of philanthropist and corporate finance pioneer Michael Milken.
Piper Sandler was the financial advisor to Lincolnshire Management and Schumacher.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | April 26, 2022
