Are you a fastener distributor, or a distributor with fasteners as a significant percentage of your business and
- Have ambitions to grow the business but don’t have the capital? Perhaps think “I could be a mini-Fastenal in a bigger pond than I’m currently in?”
- Or, perhaps, you’ve been thinking of exiting the business and know that the business is good, strong, and you have a #2 or a #3 that could run the business if they could afford to buy you out? And you’d like to give them the chance!
- Or, maybe you are the #2 or #3 and would like to approach ownership about buying them but need a financial backer?
Why private equity may be interested
Every distributor knows that private equity has been investing into the industrial space and into distributors. PE firms have funds to invest in companies, and people, that aspire to lead platforms and/or are seeking to exit their business.
And, the reality is, sometimes you don’t want to sell to a national chain or much larger company as they don’t value smaller companies as strategically.
Tonka Bay’s Fastener Strategy
Recently I received an email from Tonka Bay, a private equity firm that specializes in investing in value-added distribution and industrial manufacturing. They believe in focusing their resources and currently only have eight active investments.
One of their investments is Standard Lock Nut, a manufacturer that recently acquired Jones Bearing Company, a manufacturer of mounted roller bearings and power transmission components.
Their email, which was a mass email as neither Channel Marketing Group or Industrial Supply Trends has a relationship with Tonka Bay, shared:
Excerpt from Tonka Bay
“We’re Not Screwing Around
Tonka Bay is seeking to acquire a company within the industrial fasteners sector. Target companies include regional providers of fasteners with recurring MRO demand, specialty applications, and value-added services such as vendor-managed inventory. We are seeking companies with at least $10 million in revenue for this strategy.
For more information on our industrial fastener strategy please contact Kam Kielhorn at kkielhorn@tonkabayequity.com.
Fit the profile? We’d love to talk.
Tonka Bay has been Building Bigger, Better Businesses® for over 25 years. Tonka Bay acquires and invests in growth-oriented companies in the highly engineered manufacturing, value-added distribution, and business services sectors. For more on partnering with Tonka Bay go to tonkabayequity.com.
Contact us.
tonkabayequity.com and team.
Suggested next step
So, if you are interested, I’d suggest reaching out to Kam Kielhorn (the email came from him) and Tonka Bay. You never know where the discussion may go.
Good luck … and feel free to mention “I saw it on Industrial Supply Trends!”
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