Author: Andrew Warth

GI Partners, a leading private investment firm, today announced that it has completed the sale of Kellermeyer Bergensons Services, LLC (“KBS” or the “Company”) to an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L. P. (“Cerberus”). 

 

Headquartered in Oceanside, California, KBS is a leading provider of technology-enabled, integrated facility management services to customers across North America. With its differentiated technology and comprehensive suite of facility services, the Company delivers high-quality and cost-effective solutions to customers in the industrial, commercial, logistics, retail, and grocery sectors. 

 

GI Partners acquired KBS in 2014 and, during the last five years, the Company has experienced significant growth through both organic and M&A initiatives. Organically, the Company drove record new wins and maintained industry leading customer retention while diversifying its customer base into high growth end markets. Bolstering KBS’ best-in-class delivery model, the Company developed and launched KBSForce, a proprietary and purpose-built labor management and business intelligence tool, to drive industry-leading operational efficiencies and technology enablement. Additionally, GI Partners supported the establishment of KBS’ successful M&A platform, as the company completed seven strategic acquisitions, accelerating growth into highly attractive end markets while generating meaningful operational synergies. 

 

“We are very pleased with the outcome of our investment in KBS and grateful for the strong partnership with the management team,” said Hoon Cho, Managing Director at GI Partners. “It has been a pleasure partnering with Mark and the team to build an industry-leading facilities management platform. We look forward to following KBS’ continued success during the Company’s next stage of growth and its partnership with Cerberus.” 

 

Mark Minasian, Chief Executive Officer of KBS, commented, “I am very proud of the outstanding performance our team delivered, and we are grateful to GI Partners and Hoon in particular for his unwavering support and strategic engagement during our partnership. We have undergone a dramatic transformation over the past five years, driving large share gains in our traditional end markets while expanding rapidly into new ones. Today’s KBS is a scaled, structurally advantaged, technology enabled North American service platform uniquely positioned to deliver our current and future customers world class service solutions for years to come. As we enter the next chapter of our evolution, we are thrilled to be partnering with Cerberus and are confident that its deep expertise and operational and technological resources will further accelerate the pace and scale of organic and inorganic value creation.” Robert Warden, Co-Head of Private Equity and Senior Managing Director at Cerberus,
added: “We are excited to partner with KBS and build on the foundational initiatives that GI Partners has implemented over the past five years. We look forward to working with Mark and the KBS team to deliver on the significant opportunities ahead.”

 

 

About KBS
Kellermeyer Bergensons Services, LLC is a leading North American provider of technologyenabled,
integrated facility management services to the industrial, commercial, logistics,
retail, and grocery sectors. With more than 64,000 active customer locations in all 50 U.S.
states, Canada, and Puerto Rico, KBS sets the industry standard for delivering consistently
high quality and cost-effective facility service solutions. For more information on
Kellermeyer Bergensons Services, please visit www.kbs-services.com.

About GI Partners
Founded in 2001, GI Partners is a private investment firm based in San Francisco,
California. The firm has raised $19 billion in capital from leading institutional investors
around the world to invest in private equity, real estate, and data infrastructure
strategies. The private equity team invests primarily in companies in the Healthcare, IT
Infrastructure, Services, and Software sectors. The real estate team invests across a broad
range of platforms and strategies. The data infrastructure team invests primarily in hard
asset infrastructure businesses underpinning the digital economy. For more information
on GI Partners and its entire portfolio, please visit www.gipartners.com.

About Cerberus
Founded in 1992, Cerberus is a global leader in alternative investing with over $40 billion
in assets across complementary credit, private equity, and real estate strategies. We
invest across the capital structure where our integrated investment platforms and
proprietary operating capabilities create an edge to improve performance and drive longterm
value. Our tenured teams have experience working collaboratively across asset
classes, sectors, and geographies to seek strong risk-adjusted returns for our investors.
For more information about our people and platforms, visit us at www.cerberus.com/.

MaintenX team members traveled from coast to coast this October to attend Connex’s first year of Connexion events in Southern California, Ohio and New York. Connex, formerly PRSM, reorganized their midyear show into three intimate and interactive events across the U.S.

MaintenX team members met one-on-on with facilitity managers in Long Beach, Columbus and New York City to share how MaintenX’s self-performing technicians can assist with preventative and reactive maintenance needs. Each session began with a productive breakfast networking session, followed by one-on-one meetings with multi-site facility managers, lunch and a key note speaker. Attendees in all locations benefitted from unique, regionally-focused facilty-management industry updates. In all, the new program allowed attendees to be more engaged and involved than in past years’ larger format event. Also, by having three events, Long Beach, Columbus and NYC, it was much easier for Connex Multi-Site facility managers to travel and attend.

“MaintenX is proud to have been a Platinum sponsor of the inaugural Connexion event in Long beach and a participant at all three events ,” said Bill Schaphorst, MaintenX’s VP of Business Development. “We enjoyed the time with facility managers and the ability to learn about regional issues, developments, and topics that are critical to our clients.”

Connex is an industry leader in retail and multi-site facilities management, with a focus on providing best practice, education, forums and partnerships to their more than more than 950 member companies. Facility management professionals will come together again with Connex at the Connex2020 National Conference in April 2020 in Orlando, Fla.

For more than 40 years, MaintenX has been a trusted name in self-performing facilities maintenance. With an unwavering focus on customer satisfaction and safety, MaintenX is trusted by clients from coast to coast.

Whether a company needs a personalized preventative maintenance schedules, reactive or emergency maintenance services, MaintenX is ready to provide top-notch service. For more information about MaintenX, visit http://www.maintenx.com.

ABOUT MAINTENX INTERNATIONAL:
MaintenX International is a fully licensed, facilities repair company. As one of the largest national self-performing facility maintenance and repair companies in the U.S., MaintenX has created a wide network of knowledgeable and professional technicians throughout the country. With their team of well-trained technicians, MaintenX self-performs and manages facility maintenance for their clients. In the event there is not a MaintenX technician in an area, the company has established a network of preferred vendor partners throughout the country for continued superior service for their clients. For more than 40 years, MaintenX has been expertly serving multi-location retail stores, restaurant chains and Fortune 500 companies nationwide.

Meg Buckley, Senior Manager, Content & Research, recently passed the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) test managed by the Project Management Institute.

“This is a distinguished achievement that provides Meg and the Education & Resources team credibility and effectiveness working on or with project teams,” said Bill Yanek, Connex CEO. “We’re excited for Meg to use her knowledge and proven project management skills here at Connex.”

The three-hour certification exam includes 150 questions that cover a broad spectrum of project management. Additionally, the certification requires 23 hours of project management education. To maintain the CAPM certification, you must retake the exam every five years.

For more information about the CAPM exam or project management credentials, click here.

For the 2nd consecutive year, Inc. 5000 has recognized 23rd Group as one of the fastest-growing companies in America. The Inc. 5000 is a prestigious ranking of the nation’s most successful American independent small businesses. 

 

On the 2019 Inc. 5000 List, 23rd Group ranked:

• No. 1005 – National Ranking
• No. 27 – North Carolina Ranking
• No. 10 – Charlotte Ranking

 

“We were inspired to build a superior facility management company, with an ethos firmly rooted in solving industry challenges, confronting industry norms and implementing bold solutions to advance customer objectives, inspire our team and differentiate our firm. We would like to thank our employees, who continue to provide exceptional customer service through unrivaled communication. We value our relationships with our customers and our growth trajectory is the direct result of strong partnerships between our employees and customers,” said Gregg Ross, Co-Founder of 23rd Group.

 

23rd Group offers a full-range of facility maintenance services, project management, and construction related services. Its services enable multi-site companies to better manage their national footprints with a focus on reducing cost, applying innovative strategies and continuously improving the customer service experience. 23rd Group uniquely tailors its services to meet the evolving challenges associated with building, expanding, and maintaining national facilities. The firm provides services for retail, financial, hospitality, entertainment, restaurant, convenience, healthcare, and commercial sectors of the marketplace throughout the United States and Canada. For more information, visit 23rdGroup.com

 

For more info, contact: Gregg Ross, Co-Founder, 23rd Group, 704-909-4423 x102, greggr@23rdgroup.com, or Carl Paparella, Co-Founder, 23rd Group, 704-909-4423 x101, carlp@23rdgroup.com

The Orange County Business Journal, in partnership with OneOC, recently honored Branded Group as one of Orange County’s 50 most community-minded companies. This is the second year in a row that Branded Group has earned this distinction.

 

“We are humbled to, once again, have been selected for this award,” Michael Kurland, Branded Group Founder and CEO, said. “Our team is committed to its vision of building a conscious business that inspires future humanitarian leaders. It’s gratifying to know that our efforts have been recognized.”

 

The award provides a local standard for superior corporate citizenship and showcases how companies can use their time, skills and resources to improve the quality of life in the community where they do business.  By their leadership and community engagement practices, Civic 50 Orange County companies are translating good intentions into sound business practices.

 

“Our culture at Branded Group reflects our commitment to give back and make a difference,” Kurland said. “We will continue to do all we can to have a positive impact to our community and the world, and hope to inspire other businesses to do the same.”

  

Since 2012, the Civic 50, an initiative of Points of Light, has recognized the 50 most community-minded companies in the nation. Companies are selected based upon four dimensions of their community engagement programs: investment, integration, institutionalization and impact.

 

Civic 50 Orange County companies are increasingly shaping their strategies and crafting their policies to prioritize meaningful engagement with communities. No longer satisfied with checkbook philanthropy or short-term returns on CSR initiatives, Civic 50 companies are elevating critical stakeholder voices from employees, customers and communities into their mission statements.

 

For more information about Branded Group, contact Michael Kurland at mkurland@branded-group.com.

 

About Branded Group

Branded Group is an award-winning facility maintenance and construction management company servicing multi-site commercial properties. Through its “Be Better” experience, Branded Group provides clients with peace of mind and preserves their brand standards. Services include on-demand facility maintenance, construction management, and special project implementation for retail locations, restaurants, healthcare facilities, and educational institutions, among other industry verticals. With its One-for-One Program, each completed service call is transformed into volunteer time with local non-profit organizations. The company has been certified as a Great Place to Work® and has ranked on the Inc. 5000 for two consecutive years. For more information, visit www.branded-group.com.

 

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