Pool Troopers, a provider of pool services and a portfolio company of Shoreline Equity Partners, has acquired The Pool Man of Key West.
Pool Troopers is a provider of chemical, cleaning, maintenance, and repair services for residential and commercial pools. The company has more than 20,000 customers in Florida, Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona. Pool Troopers was founded in 1952 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.
The Pool Man of Key West (PMKW) provides weekly pool cleaning and maintenance, pool equipment repairs and installation, leak detection, and pool resurfacing. The company has been serving the lower Florida Keys – from Key West to Big Pine Key – since 2004. PMKW was acquired by its president, Ben Bortner, in 2019.
Post-closing, Mr. Bortner will join Pool Troopers as its General Manager, Florida Keys, and will oversee the company’s regional operations as well as assist with Pool Troopers’ overall acquisition strategy.
“Bringing Ben and The Pool Man of Key West team into Pool Troopers is one of our most significant partnerships. His reputation in the lower Keys is unmatched and we look forward to Ben’s leadership within Pool Troopers,” said Mark Patton, the CEO of Pool Troopers.
“As I was searching for a partner to support our next growth phase, the “backyard hero” mindset at Pool Troopers really stood out to me as an ideal cultural fit for our team and our mission to be the most dependable, reliable, and professional pool service company in the Florida Keys,” said Mr. Bortner. “Joining Pool Troopers will also provide our employees with benefits they previously did not have access to and give them more opportunities to grow their careers within the pool industry.”
The buy of PMKW is the 14th add-on acquisition completed by Pool Troopers since being acquired by Shoreline in October 2020. Other recent acquisitions for Pool Troopers include Palm Harbor, Florida-based All Clear Pool Services & Supplies (June 2022); Jacksonville, Florida-based Clearview Pool Service (April 2022); St. Petersburg, Florida-based Pure Planet Pools (April 2022); and Fort Myers, Florida-based Cobalt Pool Service (April 2022).
Shoreline invests up to $100 million per transaction in support of buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate divestitures. Typical target companies will have enterprise values from $25 million to $250 million and EBITDA of $3 million to $25 million. Sectors of interest include specialized manufacturing, value-added distribution, and business and facility services.
In January 2020, Shoreline held an oversubscribed and hard-cap close of its first fund, Shoreline Equity Partners Fund LP, with $300 million in capital commitments. The firm was founded in March 2019 and is based near Jacksonville in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | August 4, 2022
