Pfingsten Partners has sold Quality Valve, a distributor of OEM valve replacement and repair parts, to The Stephens Group.
Quality Valve is a national provider of safety and relief valve parts to certified valve repair companies. The company’s inventory contains more than 12,500 SKUs of OEM spare parts from more than 100 suppliers including major pressure relief valve brands such as Dresser, Consolidated, Crosby, Anderson-Greenwood, Farris, Lesser, Griffco, and Key-Tite.
Quality Valve processes more than 25,000 orders each year with many of the company’s products – bellows, springs, digital valve controllers, pressure relief valves, and back pressure valves – used in applications within the chemical, power, refining, wastewater, and food and beverage processing industries. Quality Valve, led by CEO Jody Dunn, was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Mobile, Alabama.
Pfingsten acquired Quality Valve in July 2018 through its $382 million fifth fund which closed in February 2016. During Pfingsten’s ownership term Quality Valve added-on with the November 2021 buy of Griffco Valve, a manufacturer of back pressure valves, pressure relief valves, pulsation dampeners, and gauge guards. Griffco is headquartered near Buffalo in Amherst, New York.
“Quality Valve surpassed all expectations with a can-do attitude and customer-centric approach,” said Scott Finegan, a senior managing director at Pfingsten. “We were proud to support the company in deepening its inventory and operational footprint, strengthening its management team, and entering pump accessories via the strategic acquisition of Griffco Valve.”
Chicago-based Pfingsten invests in middle-market manufacturing, distribution, and business services companies that have transaction values ranging from $15 million to $100 million, revenues from $20 million to $150 million, and EBITDA between $3 million and $12 million. Since completing its first investment in 1991, Pfingsten has acquired 161 such companies through five funds with total commitments of $1.3 billion.
“Pfingsten’s unwavering support and trust in our leadership team were instrumental in the success of our business,” said Mr. Dunn. “We could not be prouder of our team’s accomplishments over the past four years and are equally excited for the next chapter.”
“We are thrilled to add Quality Valve to our family of companies,” said Grant Jones, a managing director at The Stephens Group. “Quality Valve’s differentiated competitive positioning and their broad suite of low-cost, high-consequence-to-failure products make this business a perfect fit for our specialty distribution focus. We have a high degree of confidence in CEO Jody Dunn and the entire management team and the business they have built. We are looking forward to working together to execute on our shared vision to extend the leadership of this specialty distribution platform.”
Little Rock, Arkansas-based The Stephens Group is a family office that makes both minority and control investments in public and privately held companies. Sectors of interest include industrial and commercial products and services, specialty distribution, technology infrastructure, tech-enabled services, B2B food and beverage, and consumer products.
The sale of Quality Valve is Pfingsten’s fourth exit in 2022 and follows the firm’s November sale of Full Spectrum Group to publicly traded CBRE Group (NYSE: CBRE) for $110 million. Full Spectrum is a California-based provider of repair, maintenance, and validation services for laboratory instrumentation.
Audax Private Debt provides debt financing to support the acquisition of Quality Valve. BlackArch Partners was the financial advisor to Quality Valve.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | December 13, 2022
