September 2019
Wind Point Acquires leading North American manufacturer of home and personal care products
Chicago, IL, September 20, 2019 – Wind Point Partners ("Wind Point" or "WPP"), a Chicago-based private equity firm, announced today that it has acquired a controlling interest in U.S. Nonwovens, Inc. ("USN" or the "Company"). Based in Brentwood, New York, USN is one of North America's largest manufacturers of personal care, over-the-counter ("OTC"), cosmetic, laundry, and household cleaning products.
USN supplies a broad portfolio of products for personal and home care applications, including disinfectant, cosmetic and personal cleansing wipes, as well as laundry detergent, bleach and fabric softeners. The Company operates with nearly 1,200 employees out of 13 North American locations, including eight manufacturing sites and five self-managed warehouses.
USN leverages a suite of management tools across all its divisions, including the Oracle JD Edwards ERP platform, Agile PLM, Salesforce CRM, Hyperion Financial Management, and Taleo HRIS. USN services Fortune 500 retail and branded customers throughout North America, Latin America and Europe. Additionally, USN owns several nationally recognized brands including Ajax™ Laundry, Final Touch™, Fab™, Dynamo™, Oxydol™, RediWipes™, SunnySoft™, Luminoso™, Breezy™, and Bloom™.
USN executives and co-founders Shervin Zade, Rody Mehdizadeh, and Sam Mehdizadeh are retaining significant equity in the Company and will remain involved through a board seat, as well as advisory roles. The Mehdizadehs will continue to leverage their experience with M&A in assisting with the development and execution of USN's acquisition strategy, which will focus on acquiring companies that provide complementary products, manufacturing capabilities and brands.
Wind Point has partnered with Matthew Stillings as CEO and Chris Sliva as Board Chair. Stillings was most recently President and Group Executive leading the $820 million Water Management Division at Rexnord. Prior to Rexnord, he was a senior executive at IDEX Corporation, where he most recently led the $650 million Pumps & Valves division. Sliva was most recently CEO and President of AdvancePierre Foods, a $1.6 billion business formerly owned by Oak Tree Capital. His prior roles include President and COO at Treehouse Foods, a $5 billion publicly traded private label food manufacturer, and President and CCO / COO of Dean Foods.
Shervin Zade, Founder & CEO - Early Years
David Stott, Managing Director at Wind Point, commented, "USN represents an ideal fit for Wind Point. Shervin, Rody and their family have built a terrific business with strong annual growth achieved through smarts, innovation and hard work. We look forward to working with them to build on their impressive track record. We are also excited to partner with Matt, Chris and the entire USN team as they lead the Company into a new phase of growth. We have a dynamic value creation plan that includes delivering on commitments to customers, investing in innovation and additional operational resources, and completing acquisitions to enhance the Company's portfolio of products."
Matthew Stillings echoed the sentiment saying, "Customers and partners have come to value USN's entrepreneurial spirit, service, quality, and product innovation, underpinned by the Company's 'can-do' attitude. We will preserve that culture as we smartly pursue exciting growth opportunities."
Chris Sliva, Board Chair, added, "We have a terrific opportunity at USN to capitalize on the growing trend in consumer-packaged goods toward outsourced manufacturing, as well as the growth in private label market share, by providing the market with innovative ways to meet everyday needs."
Wind Point's investment in USN represents yet another partnership for the firm with an entrepreneur-owned business, a focus area of Wind Point's investment strategy for decades. Wind Point will seek to further grow USN both organically and through add-on acquisitions, leveraging the firm's experience in the consumer products industry. Select current and prior Wind Point investments in consumer products include Voyant Beauty, Hearthside Food Solutions, Shearer's Snacks, Gehl Foods, and Petmate.
"We are thrilled to have Wind Point as our majority partner for several reasons. Key among them is the integrity of their leadership, along with their extensive experience in the consumer products space and a strong reputation of partnership and collaboration with the management teams they back. We are very excited to work with Wind Point to grow USN, and we see significant opportunities ahead for our company, terrific customers, and our hardworking and loyal employees."
— Shervin Zade, Co-founder and Director of USN
USN's acquisition strategy will focus on acquiring companies that provide complementary products within OTC, personal care and household products, both for private label and branded customers, as well as the acquisition of complementary brands.
Certain divisions, brands and plants, including the Old Williamsburgh candle business, FreshenUp™, Drixoral™, Tegrin™, Skeeter Beeter™, will be retained separately by the prior owners of USN and operated under a transition services agreement for a brief period.
Reed Smith LLP served as legal counsel to Wind Point, and KPMG LLP provided transaction advisory services in connection with the transaction. Kirkland & Ellis LLP advised the sellers and Mehdizadeh Family.
