Ronin Equity Acquires DK2, SnowBear and Currahee Trailers
Ronin Equity Partners has acquired three companies:
- DK2, based in Ontario, Canada, which manufactures and sells snowplows, trailers, chippers, grinders, splitters and more;
- SnowBear Plows, also in Ontario, which manufactures snowplows, salt spreaders and related accessories; and
- Currahee Trailers, based in Georgia, which produces landscape/utility trailers, equipment/flatbed trailers, car haulers and other trailers.
Going forward, the newly combined business will operate under the DK2 corporate name. The owners and senior management teams of all three acquired companies have retained a significant stake in the merged group will and remain actively involved in company management.
“These three firms are helping to create a new category of high-end consumers and small-scale professional users for outdoor power equipment and utility trailers. We see significant growth in this prosumer demand for years to come,” says David Feierstein, managing partner of Ronin.
“We’ll combine the best of the companies’ manufacturing and delivery models, extend those capabilities to complementary equipment categories, and finance organic expansion and acquisition,” says Ronin partner Tiffany Bell, who joins DK2 as chief financial officer.
The group registers revenues in excess of $60 million and shows average annual sales growth over the past five years of 40-plus percent, Ronin reports. Ronin states that it “has reserved more than $25 million to fund highly synergistic acquisitions for DK2 and is currently in discussions with several targets. More than 35 complementary businesses have been identified.”
“This is more than just an investment,” says Steve Malizia, founder and CEO of DK2. “Ronin is bringing us back-office resources and scaling experience, while reinforcing operating muscle so that we can exceed our base potential as a combined group.”
At the merged DK2, Malizia will serve as CEO, alongside new chairman Doug Robinson, one of more than 30 Ronin operating advisors – a group that helps source transactions and advises on tactics and strategy. Over a 30-year career, Robinson served as CEO of multiple home improvement, appliance, and building materials companies. A former president of International Operations and Development for Lowe’s Companies – a major distributor of DK2 products – Robinson headed the group’s e-commerce initiative, helping to build Lowe’s into a strong omni-channel retailer.
Joining Malizia and Robinson on the new DK2 board are four other Ronin operating advisors: Jim Core, formerly president of the Professional Division at Home Depot, a major DK2 distributor; Tory Upham, previously general manager at Dakine, an outdoor equipment company; Gabriel Arreaga, chief supply chain officer at Kroger’s; and Mark Traylor, formerly president of the Ames Companies.
SNOWBEAR PLOWS
www.snowbear.com
CURRAHEE TRAILERS
www.curraheetrailers.com/
RONIN EQUITY PARTNERS
www.roninequitypartners.com
