Double E is Sold to Industrial Growth Partners
Chattanooga, TN, June 21, 2022
River Associates Investments (“River Associates” or “River”) is proud to announce the sale of its portfolio company, Double E Company (“Double E” or the “Company”), to Industrial Growth Partners (“IGP”), a private equity firm headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.
Headquartered in West Bridgewater, MA, Double E is a market leading designer and manufacturer of highly engineered components and material handling products for critical web converting applications. The Company offers highly engineered solutions to more than 10,000 end user and original equipment manufacturer customers worldwide through its premier brands. Double E’s products are utilized in a broad set of end markets that produce the necessities of day-to-day life, including converting, corrugating, flexible packaging, woven and nonwovens, paper, tissue and printing.
Throughout its ownership of Double E, River Associates and the management team focused on maintaining and strengthening the Company’s market leading position in the web converting arena and expanding its material handling product offering. River Associates assisted Double E with completing three strategic add-on acquisitions, implementing a new CRM system, making capital investments to support critical operational improvements, and making several key hires to build out the Company’s management team. As a result of these organic and inorganic growth initiatives, Double E nearly doubled in size and significantly enhanced its profitability during River’s ownership.
“River has been a terrific partner for Double E,” said Tom Pranka, CEO of Double E. “They are mature investors with a very even-keeled approach to business. Their stated mission of being great partners to management teams proved abundantly true during our time together. The River team struck the right balance of being hands-on where they needed to be while also giving us room to execute the agreed-upon strategy. They supported our vision for the Company and proactively provided strategic and financial support to help us achieve our goals. We are a better company for having partnered with River Associates, and we are very excited for how Double E is positioned after our 5 years together.”
“We thoroughly enjoyed working with Tom, Kyle, Bob and the entire Double E team,” said Mike Brookshire, Co-Managing Partner of River Associates. “They are an extremely talented, professional, and dedicated group with a deep passion for and knowledge of the Double E business. We are very appreciative of their hard work and commitment to the business through multiple growth cycles and any challenge that arose, including a global pandemic. They have been fantastic partners, and we will sincerely miss working with them. We look forward to all they will accomplish in their next chapter with their new partners.”
The investment banking firm Lincoln International, LLC advised and represented River Associates and Double E in the sale transaction.