AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At Blue Sage Capital, we begin each year with the goal of identifying two or three opportunities to partner with business owners to build and grow interesting, profitable, small/middle market companies. To find these two or three “gems” we will evaluate over 300 opportunities. Our patience and discipline were rewarded again this year.
We completed two platform acquisitions in 2017.
In February, we partnered with longtime industry veteran John Gustafson to form Frontier Waste Holdings, Inc., a provider of solid waste services to the municipal, residential, commercial and industrial end markets in Texas. Prior to Frontier's formation, John ran a $100 million EBITDA division for Progressive Waste that encompassed over 300 municipalities and 2 million customers with 2,500 employees and 12 landfills. Capitalizing on John's experience and relationships spanning 26 years, we formed Frontier with a buy-and-build strategy in mind. The Frontier Waste platform is comprised of several smaller tuck-ins:
1. Access Disposal Services, servicing Hillsboro and the area between Waco and Ft. Worth.
2. K2 Waste Solutions, servicing the areas around Corpus Christi and Liberty County.
3. Lone Star Disposal, servicing Somervell, Hood, Johnson, Parker and other counties in the Southern Dallas Ft. Worth region.
In December, we partnered with the Rones family in recapitalizing Americo Manufacturing Company, Inc. Americo is an Acworth (Atlanta), Georgia-based designer and manufacturer of floor mats and specialty nonwoven products for the janitorial services industry. Founded in 1969 by Jim Rones and now run by his son-in-law, Lenny Shutzberg, and son, Richard Rones, the company's core nonwoven products include floor pads used by building service contractors for routine cleaning and maintenance of schools, hospitals, office buildings, grocery stores and a wide variety of other building types.
During the year, we welcomed two new members to the team.
Jonathan Kaskow joined Blue Sage in June 2017 as a Senior Associate. Previously, he worked at SunTx Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity firm based in Dallas, Texas. Jonathan served as both an investment professional as well as the Director of Business Development for Construction Partners (CPI), a portfolio company in Dothan, Alabama. Jonathan received his undergraduate degree in Economics from Stanford University where he earned PAC-10 honors as a member of the baseball team. He was a professional baseball player in the Cincinnati Reds organization prior to earning his MBA from the University of Texas, where he graduated with honors.
Alan Mire joined Blue Sage in June 2017 as Controller. Previously, he worked in the public accounting industry for six years at Ernst & Young and PMB Helin Donovan. Alan graduated magna cum laude from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and a Master of Science in Finance. He is a licensed certified public accountant in the state of Texas.
About Blue Sage Capital
Blue Sage Capital is an Austin, Texas-based private equity firm specializing in growth, recapitalization and buyout financings of small middle market companies. With over fifteen years as a team and over $200 million in assets under management, we have extensive experience transitioning founder-run businesses and seek companies with leadership in their niche. Most of Blue Sage’s investments are in established, profitable companies with $20 million to $100 million of revenue and $3 million to $12 million of cash flow. Blue Sage invests in a variety of industries, with each initial investment typically ranging from $10 million to $20 million.
For more information, please visit our website, e-mail Peter Huff or Jim McBride, or call us at 512-536-1900.
