NEW YORK — April 12, 2023 (PRNEWSWIRE) — Meritus Gas Partners (“Meritus”) announced today that it entered into a partnership with Hohenschild Welders Supply Company (“Hohenschild”), a leading independent distributor of packaged gases and welding supplies headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1922, Hohenschild has been owned and operated by the Johnson family since 1947. The company serves the greater Kansas City metropolitan area from its centrally located facility in downtown Kansas City. The company is well-regarded in Kansas City for its commitment to quality and customer service and its broad customer base represents various industries, including construction, automotive and manufacturing.
“Hohenshild has earned the reputation as Kansas City’s premier welding and gas distributor,” said Perry Johnson, Hohenschild’s President since 1987. “Our success is directly attributable to the efforts of our dedicated employees and a senior management team with deep industry experience. We are excited to be joining Meritus, a company that shares our commitment to delivering exceptional service and quality products to our customers. We look forward to leveraging Meritus’ resources and expertise to continue to grow and better serve our customers in the region.”
“Hohenschild is a great fit for Meritus, and we are excited to welcome their team into the Meritus family,” said Meritus’ Chairman, Scott Kaltrider. “The company’s 100+ year history in the competitive Kansas City market is a testament to the leadership’s and employees’ commitment to superior customer service. Today, Meritus companies operate in Saint Louis, MO and Tulsa, OK, so Hohenschild fills an important geographic gap for us and furthers our strategy to expand our presence in the Midwest. We look forward to investing in the Hohenschild business to expand its capabilities, infrastructure and geographic footprint.”
Founded in December 2020, Meritus is a portfolio company of AEA Investors Small Business Private Equity. Meritus is assembling a national network of high-quality independent distributors of industrial, medical and specialty gases and welding and safety supplies, located in diverse geographies and serving growing end-markets. Meritus will partner with exceptional businesses and management teams, allow them to remain independent and entrepreneurial and support them to accelerate growth, improve business quality and enhance value. Owners are invited to invest meaningful equity into the Meritus holding company to allow them to share in the success of the overall platform. Visit us online at www.MeritusGas.com.
AEA Investors LP was founded in 1968 by the Rockefeller, Mellon and Harriman family interests and S.G. Warburg & Co. as a private investment vehicle for a select group of industrial family offices with substantial assets. AEA has an extraordinary global network built over many years which includes leading industrial families, business executives and leaders; many of whom invest with AEA as active individual investors and/or join its portfolio company boards or act in other advisory roles. Today, AEA’s approximately 110 investment professionals operate globally with offices in New York, Stamford, San Francisco, London, Munich and Shanghai. The firm manages funds that have approximately $18 billion of invested and committed capital including the leveraged buyouts of middle market companies and small business companies, growth capital and mezzanine and senior debt investments. AEA Small Business Private Equity is a strategy within AEA that currently manages approximately $2 billion of invested and committed capital. The team seeks to help grow and transform companies at the lower end of the middle market by sponsoring growing companies with proven management teams and superior business models.
AEA Investors
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
Michael Freitag, Kate Thompson and Woomi Yun
+1 (212) 355-4449
AEA-JF@joelefrank.com
Source: Meritus Gas Partners