Press Release
Sentinel Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in promising companies at the lower end of the midmarket, today announced the acquisition of UBEO Business Services, a premier provider of printer, copier, and related office equipment sales and services in Texas. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, UBEO is a provider of best-in-class document management equipment and related services. UBEO facilitates business technology integration by offering the newest, best, and most innovative ideas in hardware and software solutions to its customer base of approximately 6,000 mid-sized businesses, schools, and municipalities. With a team of more than 225 salespeople, technicians, and support staff, UBEO sells and services globally-recognized copier and printer equipment in major Texas metropolitan markets and operates seven sales sites serving the San Antonio, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston metropolitan areas. UBEO manages an installed base of approximately 20,000 machines and maintains long-term relationships with leading vendors such as Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Ricoh, and Xerox.
“We are very excited about the acquisition of UBEO and partnering with a regional market leader with a stable, highly recurring business model, high margins and strong free cash flow characteristics,” said Scott Perry, a partner at Sentinel. “As the largest independent dealer in Texas, UBEO is a scalable platform and ideal for consolidating its highly fragmented industry. We are very pleased to partner with a highly experienced, talented, and strongly committed management team that has a proven record of profitable growth.”
“We are very proud of the reputation we have built,” said Jim Sheffield, President and CEO of UBEO. “UBEO outperforms its competition in the service categories that our customers value most – technical capability, service quality, and on-time delivery. Partnering with Sentinel well positions us for our next phase of profitable growth.”
The past 12 months have been highly productive for Sentinel. Besides acquiring UBEO, Sentinel has made four other platform investments – Altima Dental, a leading dental services organization in Canada; Captain D’s, the leading franchisor and operator of seafood quick service restaurants; MB2 Dental Solutions, a rapidly-growing regional dental service organization with a unique physician-centric ownership model; and Nekoosa, a leading manufacturer of specialty paper and film products used in the graphics and commercial print markets. During this same period, Sentinel sold Checkers & Rally’s Restaurants, an iconic and innovative drive-thru restaurant chain; Huddle House, a leading franchisor of family dining restaurants in the Southeast; National Spine & Pain Centers, a leader in interventional pain management; Playcore, the leading North American designer, supplier of play, park, and recreation products; and WellSpring Consumer Healthcare, a portfolio of high-performing OTC healthcare brands.
About Sentinel Capital Partners
Sentinel Capital Partners specializes in buying and building businesses at the lower end of the midmarket in the United States and Canada in partnership with management. Sentinel targets aerospace and defense, business services, consumer, distribution, food and restaurants, franchising, healthcare, and industrial businesses. Sentinel invests in management buyouts, recapitalizations, corporate divestitures, and going-private transactions of established businesses with EBITDA of up to $65 million. Sentinel also invests in special situations, including balance sheet restructurings and operational turnarounds. For more information about Sentinel, visit www.sentinelpartners.com.
About UBEO Business Services
UBEO is the largest independent provider of document management equipment and related services in Texas. Through seven sales branches in the greater Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston metropolitan areas, UBEO sells printers, copiers, and other document management equipment bundled with premium maintenance contracts to mid-sized businesses, schools, municipalities, and other customers. For more information, please visit www.ubeo.com.