JanSan Giant Imperial Dade Switches Sponsors (2024)

• ByJohn McNulty
• May 17, 2022

Advent International has reached an agreement with Bain Capital Private Equity to acquire Imperial Dade, a distributor of foodservice packaging and janitorial supplies.

Imperial Dade has over 90,000 customers located across North America, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean who are active in the cruise lines, education, hospitality, sports and entertainment, food service, food processing, healthcare, government, and grocery segments.

Imperial Dade was founded in 1935 and operates 101 network distribution facilities across the United States (88), Canada (12) and Puerto Rico (1). The company has approximately 6,400 employees and is headquartered near New York City in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Bain Capital acquired Imperial Dade from Audax Private Equity (Audax remained as a minority investor) in June 2019. Since that time, Imperial Dade increased its annual revenue from $2 billion to $5 billion.

Earlier this month, Imperial Dade acquired janitorial and sanitation (JanSan) distributor and Detroit-based Allied Eagle Supply, the 48th acquisition for Imperial Dade under the leadership of Chairman Robert Tillis and CEO Jason Tillis. Earlier, in March 2022, Imperial Dade expanded into Canada with the buy of Veritiv Canada, a provider of packaging, JanSan, and hygiene products across twelve locations in Canada, from publicly traded Veritiv Corporation (NYSE: VRTV).

Today, Imperial Dade is one of the largest distributors of disposable foodservice and janitorial supplies – with more than 15,000 SKUs – in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Midwest regions and Puerto Rico.

“We appreciate the support and partnership Bain Capital has provided as we have expanded our business and customer mix tremendously. We look forward to working with Advent as we continue to expand our platform,” said Robert Tillis.

Boston-headquartered Advent International targets investments in the healthcare, business and financial services, retail, consumer and leisure, industrial, and technology sectors. Since its founding in 1984, Advent has invested in more than 390 private equity investments in 41 countries and has $88 billion in assets under management.

“Imperial Dade has developed a truly differentiated value proposition based on its best-in-class service and industry-leading product portfolio. We look forward to continuing to serve the company’s stakeholders, including its thousands of valued customers, its employees, and the communities in which it operates,” said Stephen Hoffmeister, a managing director at Advent.

“Imperial Dade has become the preeminent platform in North America that quality, independent operators are proud to join. Now we are excited to continue to support Imperial Dade’s growth journey with our new partners at Advent, with whom Bain Capital has successfully collaborated in the past,” said Ken Hanau, a managing director and co-head of industrials at Bain Capital Private Equity.

Bain Capital Private Equity was founded in 1984 and invests in the consumer and retail; financial and business services; healthcare; industrials; and technology, media, and telecommunications sectors. The firm has a team of approximately 240 investment professionals with 19 offices on four continents including offices in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Dublin, London, Munich, Melbourne, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo.

Goldman Sachs and Harris Williams are the financial advisors to Bain Capital and Imperial Dade, and Baird is the financial advisor to Advent.

© 2022 Private Equity Professional | May 17, 2022