Smile Brands, a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors, has acquired two dental practices with the buys of A+ Dental Care and OneSmile Silicon Valley.
A+ Dental Care is a dental practice with four locations, nine general dentists and three specialists. The group serves the Northern California communities of Roseville, Lincoln, and Rocklin. Smile Brands has provided support services to its original three A+ locations since March 2016 and supported A+ when it acquired an additional location in November 2016.
Smile Brands has also partnered with a group of three dental practices in Mountain View and Los Gatos, CA, which will now be collectively known as OneSmile Silicon Valley (OSSV). OSSV provides general dental services plus specialty services including endodontics, periodontics, oral surgery, orthodontics, and implants. OSSV has a 17-person staff including six general dentists, six specialty dentists, and five hygienists.
In June 2015, Gryphon Investors formed OneSmile, a new platform company to acquire dental practices in the western United States. Partnering with Gryphon – for the second time – were dental care executives Steven Bilt and Bradley Schmidt. Mr. Bilt was previously the President and CEO of Gryphon’s portfolio company Smile Brands, a provider of support services to general and multi-specialty dental groups, and Mr. Schmidt was the CFO of Smile Brands. Together with Gryphon’s financial backing, the two executives built Smile Brands from inception to over 250 locations with revenues of more than $350 million before Gryphon sold a majority of its shares to Freeman Spogli in 2005 which in turn sold the company to Welsh Carson in 2010. Gryphon then re-acquired Smile Brands from Welsh Carson in August 2016.
Today, Smile Brands is one of the largest providers of support services to dental groups in the United States. The company supports 350 Bright Now! Dental; Monarch Dental; and Castle Dental offices in 17 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. The company is headquartered in Irvine, CA (www.smilebrands.com).
“Partnering with and then supporting dental entrepreneurs like the founders of OSSV and A+ is at the core of what has made Smile Brands successful. Our three national brands – BrightNow!, Monarch and Castle Dental – were all originally founded in partnership with an outstanding local dental group. Our greatest successes have come through supporting these groups as they grow and mature from a handful of locations to 20 or more over time,” said Mr. Bilt.
Gryphon Investors makes leveraged acquisitions and growth investments in middle-market companies. The firm invests from $35 million to $100 million of capital in companies with sales ranging from $50 million to $400 million. Sectors of interest include business services, consumer and retail, automotive, chemical, general manufacturing, health care and hotels. Gryphon Investors is based in San Francisco (www.gryphoninvestors.com).
“Central to our acquisition strategy is to identify and partner with best-in-class dental groups that provide high quality and affordable service to their local communities,” said Patrick Costello, Smile Brands’ Director of Business Development. “Our mission is to accelerate the growth of these practices through additional add-on acquisitions and by leveraging the combined scale and operational expertise of Smile Brands and our supported groups.”
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | February 13, 2017
