Blue Sage Capital (“Blue Sage”) announced today that it closed on the sale of Americo Manufacturing Co. (“Americo”) to Fibrix Filtration, a provider of high loft and pleat media filtration products. Americo is a manufacturer of specialty nonwoven products across a variety of industry verticals, including floor cleaning, roofing, filtration and other OEM applications. Americo also manufactures specialty matting products sold through OEM, Janitorial/Sanitation and promotional products channels. Blue Sage invested in Americo in December 2017 through its partnership with the founding Rones family, including CEO Lenny Shutzberg and President Richard Rones.
Blue Sage Managing Member, Jim McBride, remarked, “Americo is the quintessential Blue Sage investment. We had great partners in Lenny Shutzberg and Richard Rones, and we were able to successfully grow the business through strategic investments in the company’s manufacturing capabilities, R&D function and sales channels. Americo stands apart within the high loft nonwoven industry and we look forward to the company’s continued success under Fibrix’s leadership.”
Blue Sage Partner, Jonathan Pearce, added, “during our partnership with the Rones family, Americo was able to leverage its sterling reputation for environmentally-sustainable practices including the company’s highly-innovative Full Cycle cleaning floor pads to serve customers across a diverse set of end markets. We couldn’t be prouder of the efforts from our team at Americo and will be excited to watch the business continue to flourish alongside the Fibrix team.”
Blue Sage and Americo were represented in the transaction by Prestwick Partners (Investment Advisory), Queen Saenz + Schutz PLLC (Legal), Duff & Phelps Transaction Advisory Services (Accounting) and Cherry Bekaert (Tax).
About Blue Sage Capital
Blue Sage Capital is an Austin, Texas-based private equity firm that has been investing in profitable, growing, lower middle-market companies since 2002. Blue Sage currently has over $400 million of assets under management and seeks to partner with founders, families, and management teams as the first round of institutional capital for businesses that enjoy leadership positions in niche manufacturing, environmental solutions, or specialty services industries. Blue Sage typically invests $20 million to $40 million in control buyout investments and recapitalizations of companies with $20 million to $200 million of revenue.
For questions or inquiries, please contact Jim McBride, Jonathan Pearce or Jonathan Kaskow at 512-536-1900.