House-Hasson to Acquire Bostwick-Braun Hardware Distributor
House-Hasson Hardware, America's largest independent regional hardware distributor is set to acquire Bostwick-Braun Hardware, a Midwestern U.S. wholesale hardware distributor. The acquisition will include warehouses and inventory.
Steve Henry, president and CEO of House-Hasson, and Pete Richichi, CEO of Bostwick-Braun, said the letter of intent was signed Tuesday, March 19.
"We believe in the future of independent hardware stores and lumberyards," Henry said. "These businesses are owned by many thousands of men and women, husbands and wives, sons and fathers, mothers and daughters, and we want to make sure they continue to prosper. Their profitability is our purpose.
"When completed, this acquisition doubles the number of our distribution centers, grows our inventory, and puts us in an even stronger position to provide everything our dealers need," Henry said.
House-Hasson's main warehouse is in Knoxville, Tenn.,; a second warehouse is in Prichard, W. Va. With the addition of Bostwick-Braun's West Helena, Ark., and Ashley, Ind., warehouses, House-Hasson will have more than 1.1 million square feet of warehouse, receiving and shipping space.
Richichi said that Bostwick-Braun has a nearly 170-year history of working for customers throughout the U.S. Midwest.
The pending acquisition's cost is being privately handled between the two companies.
FleetPride Acquires Wheelco Truck & Trailer Parts and Service
FleetPride, Inc., the nation's largest independent distributor of aftermarket heavy-duty parts and service provider, has acquired the assets of Wheelco Truck & Trailer Parts and Service, a business based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The acquisition will extend FleetPride's coverage to serve customers across South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, as well as trailer and specialty equipment OEMs nationwide.
Wheelco Truck & Trailer Parts and Service was founded in 1961 and is a third-generation family business, owned and operated by Steven P. Stich. The business consists of six retail parts locations, two service centers, one distribution center, and Wheelco Manufacturing Components OEM division.
FleetPride now has 18 locations in South Dakota and Minnesota, several of which are in and around the Twin Cities. In addition, FleetPride is creating a new OE Solutions division by combining Wheelco Manufacturing Components with FleetPride's OE trailer axle division.
"We are excited to announce the new FleetPride OE Solutions division," said Harris. "While both companies have been providing axle assemblies to trailer and specialty equipment OEMs for over 20 years, we're taking advantage of the combined capabilities to expand our presence in this segment by providing innovative solutions for air brake axles dressed to customer specifications, suspensions, and kitting solutions designed to create production efficiencies for our OEM customers. Our team members are very excited to bring extensive industry knowledge and capabilities together under the new OE Solutions division." FleetPride's axle assembly operations are based in Grapevine, Texas, while the Wheelco Manufacturing Components assembly plant is based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Jama Software Agrees to 1.2 Billion Sale
Jama Software, an industry-leading requirements management and traceability solution provider, is set to be acquired by Francisco Partners for $1.2 billion. Marc Osofsky, Jama Software CEO, will stay on and continue to lead the company.
"The engineering management market is in the early stages of a fundamental transformation which Jama Software is at the forefront of. We are ecstatic to be partnering with Marc and his team in continuing to execute on their industry-leading vision and strategy", said Petri Oksanen and Mario Razzini, Partners at Francisco Partners
Jama Software has become a market leader in Requirements Management & Traceability and is a leader in customer satisfaction, NPS scores, SaaS scale, security and SOC2 compliance, usability, performance, integrations, measured process improvement, benchmarking, NLP, and more. Jama Software helps companies intelligently improve their development process to reduce defects, delays, cost overruns, and recalls.
Southwest Acquires SAFFiRE Renewables for Sustainable Fuel
Southwest Airlines Co. has acquired SAFFiRE Renewables, LLC as part of its investment portfolio of wholly-owned subsidiary Southwest Airlines Renewable Ventures, LLC (SARV) which is dedicated to creating more opportunities to obtain sustainable aviation fuel.
SAFFiRE is part of a project supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and produce scalable renewable ethanol that can be upgraded into SAF. SAFFiRE expects to use technology developed at the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to convert corn stover, a widely available agricultural residue feedstock in the U.S., into renewable ethanol.
Southwest first invested in SAFFiRE during phase one of the pilot project in 2022. With this acquisition, SAFFiRE is expected to proceed with phase two of the project by developing a pilot plant hosted at Conestoga's Arkalon Energy ethanol facility in Liberal, Kansas. Initially, this plant is intended to use SAFFiRE's exclusive technology license from NREL to process 10 tons of corn stover per day for the production of renewable ethanol. Then, the plan is for the ethanol to be converted into SAF by LanzaJet, Inc.
"Renewable ethanol is an important feedstock to realizing high-volume, affordable SAF, which is a critical part of the journey to net zero carbon emissions," said Tom Nealon, President of SARV and CEO of SAFFiRE. "We are enthusiastic about the ethanol-to-SAF pathway and SAFFiRE's potential ability to produce renewable ethanol at a scale that is economically viable."
Greene Group Acquires Holo Additive Manufacturing
Greene Group Industries, Inc., a leader in the development and manufacture of complex components through metal injection molding, has acquired Holo, Inc. Holo's patented PureForm additive manufacturing technology enables rapid prototyping and scaled production of complex metal parts.
Alexis Willingham, GGI's CEO, said, "Holo's technology is a great addition to our comprehensive offering of metal injection molding, stamping, and precision machining. This transaction enables GGI to deliver prototype metal parts, with a surface finish and feature resolution comparable to metal injection molding, in a best-in-class lead time of less than two weeks."
Willingham added, "PureForm additive manufacturing technology will strengthen our partnerships with customers by supporting faster iterations through the entire product life cycle, while GGI maintains its premium engineering service and quality performance."