Meek's Lumber, the 22nd biggest company on the ProSales 100, has been acquired by Angeles Equity Partners and Clearlake Capital Group as part of an effort to build a national building products distribution giant, the two private investment firms announced today. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
Angeles and Clearlake signaled in their news release that they could buy more companies by revealing they have formed a company called American Construction Source (ACS) "to acquire Meek’s and additional lumber and building materials businesses to create a leading national building products distributor with the resources, leverage, and focus to deliver the LBM industry’s best customer experience."
James Drexinger, a former senior executive at Stock Building Supply who joined Angeles as an adviser in 2014, was named CEO of both Meek's and ACS. "Together with the management team, our salespeople, and our associates, we will be leveraging our shared strengths to become a leading national building products distributor through operational excellence and customer focus,” he said.
Founded in 1919, Meek's is unusual in that it operates in two quite different locations: One section has 13 locations in Northern California and Nevada while the other serves pros through 37 yards in Arkansas and Missouri. Together those operations generated $347.6 million in sales last year, a 10% improvement from 2016. Roughly 80% of sales were to pros. Meek's product offerings include lumber, concrete, masonry, drywall, decking, hardware, insulation, lighting, millwork, paint, plumbing, plywood, rebar, roofing, siding, trusses, windows, specialty distribution, and installed services
Charlie Meek will remain involved as an executive vice president for business development, while Carrie Meek will stay on as a board member, Angeles and Clearlake said in the news release.
“Angeles views Meek’s combination of scale and local market leadership as the basis for a compelling platform investment in the building products sector” Timothy Meyer and Jordan Katz, co-founders and managing partners at Angeles, said in the news release.
José E. Feliciano, co-founder and managing partner of Clearlake, and James Pade, principal of Clearlake, said they are committed to providing capital, experience and operational best practices to Meek's "to build an industry-leading building products distributor with a national footprint."
The news release quoted Carrie Meek and Charlie Meek as saying Angeles and Clearlake "are the best partners to help grow the business and achieve its full potential."
Anchor Peabody was the exclusive financial advisor to Meek’s in the transaction.
