Arsenal Capital Partners Acquires Carolina Color and Breen Color Concentrates

New York - Arsenal Capital Partners (“Arsenal”), a leading private equity firm that invests in middle-market specialty industrial and healthcare companies, announced today that it has acquired Carolina Color Corporation (“Carolina Color”) as well as Breen Color Concentrates, LLC (“Breen”) alongside the management teams of each company.

Now under common ownership, the combination of Breen and Carolina Color immediately establishes a leading specialty color and additive concentrate supplier in the plastics market. The combined business has five manufacturing facilities throughout the U.S. and can leverage its growing suite of technologies and products across the broader platform to better serve existing and prospective customers.

Headquartered in Salisbury, NC, Carolina Color is a leading supplier of custom color concentrates for the plastics industry serving customers across multiple end markets. The company’s unique G2® and G3® products are recognized as the premier technologies in the colorants space and offer customers the highest-loaded combination of pigments and additives in the industry.

Matt Barr, Vice Chairman of Carolina Color stated, “I am excited about our new partnership with Arsenal and believe they are uniquely positioned to support our next phase of growth and development. Arsenal has significant experience in the specialty chemical and plastics sectors, as well as a highly knowledgeable team that will help Carolina Color and Breen grow. We look forward to working with them as the company continues to focus on providing advanced color solutions for customers.”

Headquartered in Lambertville, NJ, Breen is a leading supplier of custom color concentrates for the plastics industry with a focus on serving the wire & cable, packaging, and consumer end markets. The company’s expertise in custom color formulations for PVC resins has enabled it to become the market leader in a broad range of market applications. Additionally, in February 2016 Breen acquired Hudson Color Concentrates, enabling its expansion into engineered resin-based concentrates and further expanding its manufacturing footprint in the Northeast and Midwest U.S. Breen and Hudson were majority-owned by Connecticut-based private equity firm, Capital Partners.

“The combination of Breen and Carolina Color is a perfect fit of two players in the color concentrate space,” said Howard DeMonte, President of Breen. “This combination brings together complementary manufacturing capabilities, broadens our base of technologies, and expands our market reach. All of this with a shared vision of excellent service by experienced teams will enable us to better serve our customers.”

Tim Zappala, a Partner of Arsenal, said “We are excited to be partnering with great leadership teams that have a long history of delivering continued innovation and sustained growth. This combination represents the next phase of growth for both businesses and is an important milestone in our strategy to build a leading color concentrate business offering customized and proprietary solutions. We look forward to continue their track records of growth through both organic initiatives, as well as building through strategic acquisitions to further expand the platform’s product and service offering.”

“Both Carolina Color and Breen are customer-centric organizations, dedicated to providing the highest levels of service and technology,” said Joe Rooney, a Principal of Arsenal. “The combination will have a number of strengths to draw upon as we create a premier platform in the color concentrate space through continued investment in growth and acquisitions.”

Stout Risius Ross Advisors acted as financial advisor to Arsenal in conjunction with the acquisition of Breen.