BETHESDA, Md. & EVANSTON, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rotunda Capital Partners (“Rotunda”) has invested in Lehman Pipe and Supply, Inc. (“Lehman” or “the Company”), in partnership with existing management.
Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Miami, FL, Lehman is a distributor of industrial pipe, valves and fittings (PVF), and ancillary products to commercial HVAC and plumbing contractors in South and Southwest Florida, Caribbean, and Latin American markets. Operating out of a 100k square foot facility in Miami, with additional branches in Ft. Myers and Pompano, Lehman serves a diversified set of over 2,300 domestic and 450 international customers with a comprehensive inventory selection of 10,000+ unique stocked SKUs.
“Rotunda’s partnership with Lehman is the culmination of a multi-year firm effort to invest in the PVF distribution industry, based on the growth in infrastructure spend, the continued need to upgrade and retrofit aging commercial and industrial facilities, and the industry’s large, fragmented nature,” said Corey Whisner, Managing Partner at Rotunda. “Lehman exemplifies many of the most important characteristics that we have been seeking – the Company has a diversified customer and product mix, wins based on superior customer service, and is led by a strong, well-rounded management team that has experience executing organic growth initiatives.”
Dan Lipson, Managing Partner at Rotunda, added: “We are excited to help implement a growth and value creation strategy that we’ve been successful executing with other specialty distributors. Together with management, we have the opportunity to build a super-regional leader through selective acquisitions and new greenfield locations across the South and Southeast United States. We are all aligned on how to invest in the team and operations so that the Company can enter new markets and win new business. Lehman is large enough to benefit from scale with an extensive product and service offering, but locally focused to deliver a high-touch customer experience on a daily basis.”
“We are excited to announce our new partnership with Rotunda and begin the next chapter of growth for Lehman,” said Josh Aberman, CEO of Lehman. “With additional resources and support, we will be able to grow our current footprint, expand our product offering for our existing customers and execute on our strategic acquisition strategy. Rotunda shares our focused vision of a broad product offering and unmatched service for our customers, and we look forward to working with the Rotunda team to execute our growth strategy.”
Dennis Lehman, current Board Member and Strategic Advisor of Lehman, added: “Lehman was started by my parents and has been a family business for almost 80 years. Over the last decade we have grown organically to become a dominant PVF distributor in southern Florida. I believe it’s time to let the next generation of management grow Lehman, both organically and through acquisitions. After an exhaustive search, it was clear that Rotunda was the right partner for this next phase of growth. Rotunda truly understands our business, our heritage, and our dedication to unparalleled customer service and we believe will provide the expertise and guidance to help the Company achieve its full potential.”
As part of the transaction, John Posey, a longtime operating executive of Rotunda, will become Executive Chairman of the Company. John most recently ran operations in the Northeast for US LBM, and before that was a senior executive at Ferguson, leading operations for their PVF division.
The Rotunda team includes Corey Whisner, Dan Lipson, Rohit Dhake, Brian Kim and Patrick Keeley. Croft and Bender served as financial advisor to the Company and Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP served as legal advisor to Rotunda on this transaction. Financing was provided by TPG Twin Brook Capital Partners.
About Lehman Pipe and Supply, Inc.
Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Miami, FL, Lehman is a distributor of industrial pipe, valves and fittings (PVF), and ancillary products to commercial HVAC and plumbing contractors in South and Southwest Florida, Caribbean, and Latin American markets. For more information on Lehman, visit us online at www.lehmanpipe.com.
About Rotunda Capital Partners
Rotunda Capital Partners is an operationally oriented private equity firm focused on transforming family-founder owned companies into dynamic, data-driven platforms able to achieve and manage significant growth. Since its founding in 2009, Rotunda has partnered with management teams to build great businesses within three primary sectors: value-added distribution, asset-light logistics and industrial, business & residential services. Rotunda strives to achieve replicable results by implementing its Rotunda Performance System to create strategic alignment, develop lean processes and create robust, data-driven infrastructures. For more information, visit www.rotundacapital.com.
