Shoreline Equity Partners has closed its sale of Florida Veg Investments (DBA Mr. Greens) to Sterling Investment Partners. The Mr. Greens management team will continue to lead the company and maintain a significant ownership position in partnership with Sterling.
Mr. Greens is a distributor of produce, dairy, and dry goods to more than 3,500 Florida and Texas-based restaurants, hotels, country clubs, caterers, grocery stores, and retail stores.
The company makes product deliveries 365 days a year, 7 days a week, with multiple delivery runs every day. Mr. Greens, led by Chairman Peter Politis and CEO Nick Politis, is headquartered in Miami, Florida.
Peter Politis acquired Mr. Greens in 2011 and over the next eight years, he grew the business from six employees in a 3,000-square-foot facility to over 270 employees across three facilities with a total of 125,000 square feet.
“We are thrilled to embark on this new chapter with Sterling as our next partner,” said Nick Politis. “Our platform is perfectly suited to continue taking advantage of the migration that has swept across the Southeast since 2019. Our partnership with Shoreline was exactly what we envisioned, and they lived up to everything they promised when we first met them in 2019. We are incredibly appreciative of the partnership and grateful for their support over the years.”
“Nick and the entire team at Mr. Greens have done an incredible job navigating the most challenging times the industry has experienced and gained incredible market share as foodservice demand has rebounded,” said Mike Hand and Peter Franz, co-founders of Shoreline, in a released statement. “We are forever grateful to Nick and Peter Politis for selecting us as their first institutional partner. One of the greatest joys we experience at Shoreline is recognizing how well-positioned our businesses become ahead of their next cycle of ownership. That statement could not be more fitting than for Mr. Greens.”
In addition to Mr. Hand and Mr. Franz, the Shoreline transaction team included Principal Ian Garland, Principal Zach Mittelmark, Senior Associate Mike Mancini, and Associate Mike Dolak.
“We’re so proud of the Mr. Greens team for the many achievements made under Shoreline’s ownership,” said Peter Politis. “Over the last several years Mr. Greens has made substantial investments in people and infrastructure while maintaining a best-in-class growth profile. We have collectively built a disruptive food distribution platform poised for continued excellence in its next stage of growth.”
Shoreline invests up to $100 million per transaction in support of buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate divestitures. Typical target companies will have enterprise values from $50 million to $250 million and EBITDA of $5 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 Neptune Beach, Florida.
Westport, Connecticut-based Sterling, the buyer of Mr. Greens, invests in distribution and business services companies with revenues of $50 million to $500 million and EBITDA of $10 million to $50 million. Since its founding in 1991, Sterling has overseen the investment of $2.6 billion of equity across 39 platform investments and 130 add-on acquisitions. In January 2023, Sterling held a final and above-target closing of Sterling Investment Partners IV LP with $934 million in capital commitments.
© 2023 Private Equity Professional | May 5, 2023
