Hamilton Robinson Capital Partners has sold Sound Seal to The Stephens Group.
Sound Seal is a manufacturer of acoustical noise control products including soundproof enclosures, doors and windows, noise curtains and barriers, fabric wrapped wall panels, floor underlayments, HVAC silencers and acoustic louvers. The company’s products are used in a range of noise control applications including industrial, architectural, medical, retail, and entertainment. Sound Seal was founded in 1978 and has a 50,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility and headquarters located 90 miles west of Boston in Agawam, MA (www.soundseal.com).
During Hamilton Robinson’s ownership term Sound Seal more than doubled in size, driven by organic growth and three add-on acquisitions which added both new products and markets. The three add-ons were The Proudfoot Company, a Connecticut-based maker of acoustical masonry products (July 2017); IAC Acoustics, a New York-based maker of HVAC silencers, acoustic louvers, and sound control doors and windows (December 2015); and Industrial Noise Control, an Illinois-based maker of noise control systems (November 2014).
“We are proud of the company’s accomplishments during our partnership,” said Christian Lund, a partner at Hamilton Robinson. “We identified opportunities to expand our portfolio of products, and together with our management team we executed three accretive add-on acquisitions which added significantly to our suite of noise control solutions and geographic reach.”
Hamilton Robinson acquired Sound Seal from its founding owners in December 2013 and assisted the company in transitioning from family to institutional ownership. “We made critical investments to build management depth and transform the culture at the company,” said Brandon Richter, a managing director at Hamilton Robinson. “Sound Seal is now a world-class organization devoted to growing the business and delivering industry-leading products and service to its customers.”
“Hamilton Robinson supported us in every way,” said Joe Lupone, Sound Seal’s CEO. “They started with a focus on a vision of what the business should look like in the future, which led to developing the strategic initiatives necessary to achieve it. Hamilton Robinson’s support over the past five years helped us expand our product portfolio and secure our leading position in the market.”
Hamilton Robinson invests from $2 million to $20 million of equity in companies that have revenues from $25 million to $200 million. Sectors of interest include manufacturing, distribution and services. The firm, currently investing from its fourth fund, has invested more than $1.3 billion in 55 companies since its founding in 1984. Hamilton Robinson is headquartered in Stamford, CT (www.hrco.com).
“We are very excited to add Sound Seal to our portfolio of world-class companies,” said Clay Hunter, managing director at The Stephens Group. “Sound Seal is a leader in their industry with a strong and experienced management team in place. There are a number of long-term, systemic forces driving adoption of noise control products in almost every industry, and Sound Seal’s highly engineered products, scale, solutions-oriented reputation and its customer-centric culture uniquely position the company for success in this rapidly growing industry.”
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 and tech-enabled services, B2B food and consumer products. The Stephens Group is based in Little Rock, AR (www.stephensgroup.com).
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | March 27, 2019