San Francisco-based private equity firm Gryphon Investors announced on Wednesday that it has made a majority investment in fire safety products manufacturer Potter Electrical Signal Company.
According to a statement, Kelly Romano, the former president of several of United Technologies’ Fire and Security, and Carrier Corporation global businesses; Mark Levy, the former president and CEO of Honeywell Life Safety; and Rob Salek, the former CEO of Gryphon portfolio company Consolidated Fire Protection, will join the Board of Directors of the company (along with Gryphon professionals Bob Grady, Wes Lucas and Felix Park) as part of Gryphon’s investment. CEO Bernie Lears and the Potter management team have also retained a significant ownership position in the company, and will continue to lead the business, managing all day-to-day operations. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Kelly Romano, the former president of several of United Technologies’ Fire and Security, and Carrier Corporation global businesses; Mark Levy, the former President and CEO of Honeywell Life Safety; and Rob Salek, the former CEO of Gryphon portfolio company Consolidated Fire Protection, will join the Board of Directors of the Company (along with Gryphon professionals Bob Grady, Wes Lucas and Felix Park) as part of Gryphon’s investment. CEO Bernie Lears and the Potter management team have retained a significant ownership position in the Company, and will continue to lead the business, managing all day-to-day operations. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1898 and based in St. Louis, Mo., Potter designs and manufactures specialty electronic and electromechanical products and solutions to enable fire safety protection and code compliance in commercial, industrial, multi-family, and residential end-markets in both the U.S. and international markets. Potter, which has the industry’s top market share in the sprinkler monitoring products segment, has also been quickly gaining share in the fire alarm systems sector.
The partnership with Gryphon will provide Potter with significant resources to accelerate industry investments, with a specific focus on innovation, new solutions, and increased customer service and support.
“We are excited to partner with Gryphon as we enter the next exciting stage of Potter’s evolution. Potter has many opportunities to serve our existing customers even better and to expand our share in markets such as the fire alarm systems segment,” Lears said. “We look forward to working with Gryphon to grow our business, and most importantly to deliver even more outstanding products and service to our customers in the coming years.”
“Potter is another exciting example of Gryphon’s successful strategy of developing proprietary insights in specific attractive industry sectors and building expertise within these sectors,” said R. David Andrews, Gryphon’s founder and CEO. “The company is our third investment in the fire safety industry, after Consolidated Fire Protection and JENSEN HUGHES. In addition to the significant positive macro trends benefiting the fire safety sector and Gryphon’s successful track record of investing in this sector, we are also very pleased to support Potter’s mission to help save lives.”
Stifel Nicolaus acted as financial advisor to Gryphon and Harris Williams & Company acted as the financial advisor to Potter. Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP acted as the legal advisor to Gryphon and Bryan Cave was the legal advisor to Potter.
