Grey Mountain Partners Acquires Insulpane of Connecticut and Orchard Glass Distributors
September 5, 2012

by Penny Stacey, pstacey@glass.com

Private equity firm Grey Mountain Partners, in connection with its affiliate company, Consolidated Glass Holdings Inc. (CGH), has acquired Insulpane of Connecticut and Orchard Glass Distributors in Hamden, Conn.

Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

The abilities of Insulpane made it an attractive purchase, according to Tom Ryan, CEO of CGH.

"This is a company that's able to handle a high number of SKUs, it has two different tempering furances and a lot of management know-how," says Ryan.

In addition, geography also played a role.

"We are looking for companies that give us presence in terms of a geographic footprint adjacent to where we think market demand is going to be or is going to continue to grow, etc.," he says. "When we do that we try to acquire businesses that have a strong leadership team, have knowledge of specific types of glass, tempered, IG, etc., and the desire is for the owners of these companies to continue with us … We will continue to operate with [Insulpane president] Fred Federico and his sons in the business. They have a strong leadership team and we want that team to continue."

The goal of the acquisition, Ryan says, is "to promote growth and [for the company to] continue to make successful products," while also offering Insulpane some new capabilities.

"A number of companies have had to weather some of the same economic downturns in the building products arena as all of us had had to do in the last few years," he says. "What Grey Mountain has is the ability to produce a fresh injection of capital into some of these businesses, to be able to facilitate growth, to be able to make additional capital purchases … The opportunity is very clearly creating that incremental value not only in terms of adding that injection of capital but also providing the support for future acquisitions to help narrow that footprint."

Ryan also says Grey's strategy is a bit different than those of most private equity firms.

"The one thing that is clearly different the likes Grey Mountain versus other private equities is the way they structure deals and support their companies," he says. " … They have a pretty nice availability of equity capital to invest in these businesses and their model transcends into what we're doing at Consolidated Glass. When we acquire these companies, the businesses themselves are able to participate in the up side and they're able to leverage Grey Mountain's capital as a means of achieving that."

"There are a number of acquisitions that we either have signed letters of intent or are in discussions on," continues Ryan. "We are concentrating among all facets of the glass arena, and that includes architectural and security glass ... It's going to be viable businesses. We're not looking to pick up businesses that are under-performing. We want to take good companies and leverage what they're doing and try to bring value to what they're bringing to the market."

He adds, "We're very excited about Insulpane but we view this as one of a number of acquisition investments we think will be added to the CGH family and we're excited about prospects for future growth."

CGH is based in Denver and is a consortium of Grey Mountain's affiliate companies in the architectural, security and custom glass and metal fabrication businesses. The consortium also includes Global Security Glazing of Selma, Ala., Columbia Commercial Building Products of Rockwall, Texas, Custom Components Co. of Tampa, Fla., and Hawkins Architectural Products of Stafford, Va. The company just acquired Hawkins Architectural Products in February.

Insulpane of Connecticut has more than 30 years of fabrication experience and sells to both the new construction and remodel markets. Orchard Glass Distributors is a wholesale distributor of flat glass, mirrors and shower doors. The company was founded in 1983 and primarily serves Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

At press time, officials at Insulpane and Orchard Glass Distributors were not available for further comment.