Krystal Growth Partners (“Krystal”) is pleased to announce the sale of North West Rubber (“NWR”), a leading manufacturer and distributor of recycled and virgin rubber matting and other flooring products, to TorQuest Partners (“TorQuest”).
Founded in 1968 and based in Abbotsford, BC, NWR’s products are sold throughout North America into a variety of end markets including the farm, consumer, athletic facility, and industrial channels. Today, NWR is led by Leighton Friesen, President & CEO, who has served in this role since 2007. NWR’s operations include three manufacturing facilities located in Abbotsford, BC, Brantford, ON, and Houston, TX, a tire-recycling joint venture, Evolve Recycling Inc., also based in Brantford, ON, and various strategic manufacturing partnerships in Asia.
Under TorQuest’s ownership, the Company will continue to be led by Leighton and his senior management team, all of whom will remain significant investors in the business.
The sale of NWR to TorQuest is a very successful conclusion to Krystal’s 9-year partnership with Leighton and the NWR management team. During that time, the company grew rapidly hitting several exciting milestones, including automation of its Brantford, ON facility, investing in a tire-recycling joint venture, opening a new facility in Houston which added significant manufacturing capacity, expanding 3PL and DTC channels, and launching new product lines and e-commerce platforms. Over the term of our investment, the business grew by a CAGR of approximately 20%.
“Over the 9 years we were investors in NWR we have seen revenues increase over 4x, we added a third facility, made a key strategic acquisition and automated two of the three facilities,” said Terry Holland, Managing Partner at Krystal. “Most of all we built a wonderful working relationship with the NWR management team and had a lot of fun in the process. This always makes a divestiture much more difficult. Going forward TorQuest will be a terrific partner for Leighton and his team and will bring the financial and operational resources they will need to take NWR to the next level.”
“Terry, Paul and the Krystal team have been amazing partners over the past 9 years,” said Leighton Friesen. “They brought not only investment capital, but experience and expertise in helping us tackle challenges and make the most of the opportunities that were in front of us. While we will miss working with Krystal, we are very excited about this next chapter working with TorQuest.”