The Riverside Company has sold the Dwyer Group, a portfolio company since August 2014, to Harvest Partners.
Dwyer Group is the owner of 20 consumer brands, 17 of which are franchised service brands focused on residential and light commercial services. The company’s service brands include Aire Serv, Glass Doctor, The Ground Guys, Mr. Appliance, Mr. Electric, Mr. Rooter, Mr. Handyman, Portland Glass, Rainbow 
International, Five Star Painting, Molly Maid, ProTect Painters, Locatec, Window Genie, Countrywide Grounds Maintenance, Drain Doctor, and Bright & Beautiful. These brands collectively have more than 3,200 franchises in nine countries. The Dwyer Group, led by CEO Mike Bidwell, was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Waco, TX (www.dwyergroup.com).
During Riverside’s 3.5 year term of ownership, the firm completed 11 add-on acquisitions, added senior members to the company’s management team, built a new corporate headquarters, developed a new IT system, and launched the Neighborly brand that all of Dwyer’s brands operate under. From start to finish, EBITDA increased by more than 125%. “Working with a great management team, we really built a growth machine at Dwyer,” said Riverside Managing Partner Suzy Kriscunas. “Today, it has a much larger addressable market and a clear path for continued success.”
“Creating the Neighborly brand was important because it unifies Dwyer’s 20 premium service brands under one consumer-facing umbrella brand,” said Riverside Partner Meranee Phing. “And investing in and developing a data-centric architecture system will help facilitate the cross-selling among these consumer brands.”
The Riverside Company is a global private equity firm focused on investing in and acquiring growing businesses valued at up to $400 million. Since its founding in 1988, Riverside has invested in more than 530 transactions and its portfolio includes more than 80 companies. The firm is headquartered in New York with 16 additional US and international offices (www.riversidecompany.com).
Working with Riverside on the investment with Ms. Kriscunas and Ms. Phing were Operating Partner Tom Anderson, Vice President Jason Fulton, Senior Associate Chase Eckert and Associate Connor Ryan.
Harvest Partners, the buyer of Dwyer Group, invests in companies that have from $100 million to $1 billion in revenue and $20 million to $100 million in EBITDA. Sectors of interest include business services, consumer services, healthcare services, industrial services, manufacturing and distribution. The firm is headquartered in New York (www.harvestpartners.com).
