Charlottesville, VA. June 24, 2016 – Quad-C Management, Inc. (“Quad-C”), a leading middle market private equity firm, today announced that its previously disclosed sale of Generation Brands to AEA Investors has been completed. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Headquartered in Skokie, Illinois, Generation Brands is one of America’s most prominent residential and commercial lighting and fan companies, offering its Feiss, LBL Lighting, Monte Carlo Fans, Sea Gull Lighting and Tech Lighting product lines. Generation Brands was created when Quad-C acquired and merged three industry-leading companies: Murray Feiss, Sea Gull Lighting, and Tech Lighting, creating a portfolio of iconic brands with best-in-class product design and brand equity. Under Quad-C’s ownership, Generation Brands integrated the acquisitions and created a platform poised for strong future growth through the leveraging of best practices, product development, and cross-selling across the brands.
“When we invested in Generation Brands, we saw an opportunity to consolidate the highly fragmented residential decorative lighting industry by strategically assembling a ‘good, better, best’ concept to serve a wide range of aesthetics and sales channels, and to take advantage of the industry’s conversion to LED,” said Tony Ignaczak, President of Quad-C. “Despite the severe housing downturn, we remained committed to the strategic vision and continued to invest in the business. Thanks to the dedication and execution of the management team, Generation Brands came out of the recession a stronger business and has experienced robust growth in sales and profitability. We wish them continued success.”
“Quad-C has been an incredible partner, sharing our unrelenting optimism towards the lighting industry,” said Josh Weiss, CEO of Generation Brands. “Quad-C’s expertise, advice and support were instrumental in helping us achieve our goals.”
“Josh and the management team have done an excellent job growing Generation Brands while continuing to drive innovation and invest in new product development,” said Tim Billings, Partner at Quad-C. “It was a pleasure to work side by side as a cohesive unit committed to accelerating growth and executing our strategy.”
Generation Brands is one of America’s leading companies serving lighting retailers and the electrical wholesale, home improvement and building industries. The company has an outstanding portfolio of residential and commercial lighting fixtures and ceiling fans which provide value to its customers and end-users with superior service, leading edge design and outstanding quality. For more information, go to www.generation-brands.com
Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia, Quad-C is a middle market private equity firm focused on investing in well-established business services, consumer, general industrial, healthcare, specialty distribution and transportation/logistics companies. In its 25-year history, Quad-C has invested over $2 billion of equity across more than 50 companies. The Quad-C team is committed to partnering with entrepreneurs and management teams to accelerate growth and create long-term value. www.quadcmanagement.com
Haley Bresnahan
BackBay Communications
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haley.bresnahan@backbaycommunications.com