RefrigiWear is a family-owned, leading workwear brand providing need-based, mission critical products protecting workers in all major cold weather industries since its founding in 1954. Highly successful pre-emptive outcome: The transaction team guided management through a bespoke and effective marketing process, resulting in an actionable final proposal at the initial bid date, ensuring an exceptional valuation and outcome for shareholders.William Blair’s exceptional relationships with consumer and specialty distribution investors, along with a tailored, high-touch approach, yielded competition with many engaged parties throughout the process. Deep buyer relationships and insights: The transaction team designed a competitive process targeting the most relevant buyers.The transaction team effectively focused investors on the company’s compelling value proposition, the sustainability of market demand and performance, and an actionable growth plan with multiple levers for continued growth. Unmatched sector expertise drove differentiated positioning: RefrigiWear recognized William Blair’s extensive knowledge and experience advising leading specialty workwear and performance-driven branded businesses.RefrigiWear is the market-leading brand in cold weather workwear, providing mission-critical products to B2B food, B2B outdoor, and DTC channels, resulting in over 10 years of consistent growth. Empire is a member of the Certified Automotive Parts Association (CAPA) and the Automotive Body Parts Association (ABPA).William Blair acted as the exclusive financial advisor to RefrigiWear in connection with its recapitalization by Sentinel Capital Partners. Headquartered in Totowa, New Jersey, Empire offers more than 40,000 certified and non-certified parts to auto collision repair customers throughout the East Coast from 27 strategically located hubs and supporting satellite locations. For more information about Sentinel, visit About Empire Auto PartsĮmpire is a leading specialty distributor of aftermarket collision auto parts. Sentinel also invests in special situations, including balance sheet restructurings, operational turnarounds, and minority junior capital solutions. Sentinel invests in management buyouts, recapitalizations, corporate divestitures, going-private transactions, and structured equity investments of established businesses with EBITDA of up to $80 million. Sentinel targets aerospace and defense, business services, consumer, distribution, food and restaurants, franchising, healthcare, and industrial businesses. Sentinel specializes in buying and building midmarket businesses in the United States and Canada in partnership with management. We look forward to working with Empire's talented team as they enter their next chapter of growth.' 'The Empire team has established a growth playbook based on providing a better buying experience coupled with broad parts availability. 'Since its founding in 1985, Empire has built a reputation of providing best-in-class service through a hub-and-spoke model which now extends up and down the east coast,' said Owen Basham, a Sentinel principal. Empire's product offering covers more than 40,000 parts, including bumper covers, lamps, hoods, fenders, trunk lids, grills, bezels, door mirrors, and other products. With a vast assortment of top-quality products and a fleet of vehicles providing same-day or next-day delivery, Empire delivers unmatched service to its collision center partners. Headquartered in Totowa, New Jersey, Empire operates five distribution hubs and 22 satellite delivery locations across 16 contiguous eastern states. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Sentinel Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in promising midmarket companies, today announced its acquisition of Empire Auto Parts, a leading specialty distributor of aftermarket collision parts.

Growth Platform in Aftermarket Collision Parts Distribution

Sentinel capital partners