acquisitions
(60)
Bergmann built the connections.
A Rochester bridge engineer built a firm around local knowledge and many disciplines. Four decades later, Colliers bought the connections as much as the capabilities.
Dale Philippi and the business of making room
At AprilAire, Dale Philippi’s years of expansion can be measured in factory floors, shipping space, and a new owner. His career connects the unglamorous details of making products with the decisions that give a business somewhere to grow.
Jonathan Painter and the business of what comes next
From the legal department to the factory portfolio, Jonathan Painter built a career around the life of a business after the deal. His next act at Kadant is a carefully scheduled goodbye.
Arcosa found its edge in the heavy stuff
A quarry is hard to move. A power pole is hard to replace. Arcosa built its strategy around those inconvenient facts - and CRH just bought the business for $8.5 billion.
George Wilson’s big idea starts with the small parts
An accountant’s route through the factory floor took George Wilson to the top of Quanex. His next job is getting a sprawling collection of components, companies and people to work as one.
Dream Finders Homes: The power of paying later
A deferred payment helped launch three houses in Florida. Today, the same logic underpins a national builder with a $2.2 billion acquisition to digest.
IDEX makes the parts you can't afford to lose
A valve, a filter, a rescue tool. IDEX has built a multibillion-dollar business around the small things that determine whether the big things work.
Gibraltar Industries bets on the overlooked.
Gutters. Greenhouses. The parts of a building you notice when they stop working. Gibraltar is spending big to make more of them - and selling businesses to sharpen its focus.
Greg Daily and the art of starting over
He built his career moving money. Across three companies and four decades, Greg Daily kept returning to the same question: what should the next business do differently?
Faisal Tai and the business hiding inside a beta test
His first location doubled as a testing ground for software. Faisal Tai’s path from that practical experiment to international acquisitions tells a story about owning the tools - and the work that follows.
Charles Owens kept the next company in his wallet
After a lost bid, Charles E. Owens already had a list of what to buy next. The Construction Partners co-founder built his second act around a patient idea: let local roadbuilders keep doing what they know.
David Henley and the business of outgrowing yourself
He co-founded Meriplex as a voice and internet provider in Houston. Building it into a national IT business meant adding services, buying companies, and finding people who could challenge him.
Gerald F. Mahoney and the art of leaving well enough alone
He built Mail-Well through acquisitions, connecting local printing businesses into a public company. His advice to the new owner was surprisingly restrained: get to know the people before changing the place.
F. William Grube and the value of small diamonds
F. William Grube built Calumet around specialty businesses that bigger oil companies could overlook. His story runs from an Indianapolis gardening family to a quarter-century as CEO, with a few arrowheads along the way.
Jeffrey Powell and the business of keeping things running
At Kadant, Jeffrey Powell built a career around the machinery behind everyday materials. As he prepares to hand over the CEO role, the next chapter follows a familiar pattern: keep the knowledge, change the responsibilities.
Brian Gray and the education of a rock tester
Brian Gray started in an Oregon laboratory, testing rock for asphalt. Three decades later, he leads Knife River - with a training campus behind him and a public-market test ahead.
Timothy Fitzgerald and the art of a smaller kitchen
He helped assemble Middleby through decades of acquisitions. Now Timothy Fitzgerald is reshaping the company he helped build, with a familiar conviction: the people and the kitchen have to work together.
The company behind your intermission
J&J Snack Foods turned a bankrupt pretzel maker into a portfolio of familiar treats. Its less visible business is getting those treats to the exact moment you want one.
SiteOne sells the missing hour.
The landscape supplier built a $4.7 billion business around a simple contractor problem: too many stops between the plan and the finished job.
Mitchell Krebs and the trouble with getting bigger
An Iowa-born finance graduate spent three decades at Coeur Mining learning what growth demands. His next challenge appeared when the numbers looked good.
Knife River’s edge is under the road.
A quarry, a concrete plant, a paving crew. Knife River connects all three - and its $454 million Strata deal shows what that control is worth.
Joe Ruzynski and the things that have to keep working
From electrical enclosures to water systems, Joe Ruzynski has built a career around the machinery behind everyday life. At Franklin Electric, his next chapter runs through factory floors, Latin American pump businesses, and a $350 million acquisition.
Jule Smith knows the other side of the deal
His family’s paving business joined Construction Partners in 2011. A decade later, Jule Smith became CEO of the company buying businesses like his own.
Star Group, LP sells the fuel. The house is the opportunity.
A heating oil delivery gets Star Group to the door. Repairs, service plans and acquisitions give it reasons to keep coming back - even when the house changes how it heats.
ESCO Technologies makes the invisible matter
A transformer’s warning signs. A ship’s magnetic signature. The stray signal that ruins a test. ESCO has built a business around the engineering details customers cannot afford to overlook.
Construction Partners thinks in roads. And grows in circles.
A truckload of hot asphalt has a limited window to reach the road. Construction Partners has built its growth strategy around that very local constraint.
Silgan makes the parts you take for granted.
A food can. A perfume pump. A lid that seals. Silgan built a $6.5 billion business around small things that have to work - and its next deal would redraw the company.
US LBM got big. The lumberyard stayed local.
More than 100 acquisitions turned regional building suppliers into a national business. US LBM’s wager is that the person behind the counter still matters as much as the company behind the truck.
THOR Industries is renovating its house of brands
Airstream, Jayco, Keystone: different badges, one parent. After decades of buying RV makers and giving them room to run, THOR is bringing its North American operations closer together.
Teledyne makes the invisible useful
From the James Webb Space Telescope to a yellow robot beneath the waves, Teledyne sells a particular kind of advantage: knowing what the human eye cannot tell you.