 
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.
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