CGI Automated Manufacturing, a portfolio company of CORE Industrial Partners, has acquired Elite Manufacturing Technologies, a supplier of sheet metal components and assemblies.
Elite specializes in manufacturing cabinets, consoles, and electro-mechanical assemblies used in the electronic gaming industry. The company also provides components and final or near-final enclosures for use in other applications in the medical, telecommunications, food service and industrial equipment sectors.
Elite’s capabilities include laser cutting, punching, shearing, blanking, forming and welding, and finishing operations, including powder coating and silk screening. Elite, led by President Jim Conlon, was founded in 1991 and operates two facilities with a combined 145,000 square feet located near Chicago in Bloomingdale, Illinois.
“Over the last 30 years, Elite has developed a strong reputation for the utmost product design, innovation, and quality, especially in the rapidly growing electronic gaming industry,” said Mr. Conlon. “Now, with the benefit of additional resources and strategic support, we couldn’t be more excited to partner with CGI and CORE to accelerate our already explosive growth trajectory.”
CGI is a provider of sheet metal fabrication with service capabilities that include laser cutting, CNC punching and machining, forming, robotic welding, fastener insertion, and assembly. The company specializes in short lead times for mid-to-high volume sheet metal production parts, assemblies, and weldments in stainless steel, aluminum, galvanized, cold rolled, or hot rolled materials.
CGI has a specialization in serving customers in the electrical transmission and distribution sector and also serves the warehouse automation, technology, aerospace & defense, medical, food, and industrial sectors. CGI is headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Romeoville with 650,000 square feet of production facilities in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma.
“Elite’s comprehensive metal fabrication capabilities and investments in cutting-edge material handling automation for 24/7 production are a natural fit with CGI and augment the platform’s capacity and customer value proposition,” said Carey Chen, the chief executive officer of CGI. “We’re looking forward to collaborating with our neighbors and new colleagues in the western suburbs of Chicago.”
“The acquisition of Elite aligns with the key tenets of our investment thesis focused on providing differentiated and automated precision manufacturing solutions to industry-leading customers in fast-growing end markets,” said Matthew Puglisi, a partner at CORE. “Notably, Elite’s proprietary product design offering is a compelling addition to the CGI platform.”
The acquisition of Elite is the sixth add-on acquisition completed by CGI since its formation by CORE in August 2021. The five earlier add-ons include Massachusetts-based DFF Corporation (March 2022), Michigan-based Haven Manufacturing (February 2022), Minnesota-based Richlind Metal Fabricators (February 2022), Oklahoma-based Precision Metal Fab (December 2021), and Wisconsin-based Advanced Laser Machining (October 2021).
Chicago-based CORE makes control equity investments of up to $100 million in North America-based companies that have revenues of up to $200 million and EBITDA of up to $20 million. Sectors of interest include a range of specialty verticals within the manufacturing and industrial technology sectors.
Chicago-headquartered InterOcean Advisors was the financial advisor to Elite on this transaction.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | June 9, 2022
