The Deal

So, I went to a poker fundraiser tournament. While there, I met a friend of a friend. It turned out that he ran an interior contracting business and had done the finish work on the office of GED. Mike Ritenour, owner of Lou Ritenour Decorators and Landmark Stone, sat at my table and we chatted a little about commercial construction and the trends in green building for interiors and exteriors. No, I didn’t win the tournament, but did make the final table and had a good time.

About two months later, I got an email from Mike and his partners wanting to discuss a business they were looking to purchase. Mike Ritenour had partnered with Mike Orazen, former owner of EPG gaskets and Mike Boehringer, owner of several businesses in the document management and software industries. The three “Mikes” has pooled together some capital to form a boutique private equity fund specifically focused on the building products industry.

The e-mail mentioned a value-added fabricator of architectural door, storefront and curtainwall systems. Long story short, we hooked up and partnered to purchase FabTech in November 2007.

FabTech Inc. was founded 13 years ago by Rick Herrilko and a team of his fellow fabricators from the old PPG/Pittco operation in Cleveland. Rick had built an excellent customer-focused company that thrived on quality, speed and flexibility.

We had found a gem of a company in a market that was strong and growing stronger. We did our financial, legal, environmental and cultural due diligence.

So, I quit my job and became part owner and president of FabTech LLC. I am blessed with a great team of partners. Each of the “Mikes” brings a wealth of experience in management, business ownership, mergers and acquisitions, and product development. We each have our strengths and weaknesses and complement each other with support and challenge each other to be better every day.

We inherited a strong team of nine fabricators and an excellent estimator. Rick has stayed on as a consultant. There is a cumulative 150+ years experience in fabrication and customer service. We had an excellent team and a very strongly embedded culture. However, while the customer came first, we had some improvements to make in the culture and teamwork at FabTech. We did not get into a cultural mess, but wanted to redefine the approach to business and expectations of success and long term growth.

Next week stay tuned for the challenges of getting to know the business on paper versus what happens post closing in the real world. Also, how youth sports coaching and mentoring can help your business.