We look for profitable, industry-leading businesses in the US and Canada that desire a flexible and committed partner who can help support the business with capital and resources for growth.
Our focus is to support you
We are passionate about working with family and entrepreneur-owned businesses. Our team members have experience in traditional private equity environments but deliberately choose to eschew institutional private equity given our own family business backgrounds and our belief that non-institutional, private capital is a better long-term solution. Additionally, we see ourselves as investors and facilitators, not operators. We believe you know more about your business than we’ll ever know — our role is to be a resource to complement your management team so that your people and your business continue to thrive and grow.
Revenuetarget:
$50-500
million
EBITDAtarget:
$8-40+
million
Equity capitalinvestment target:
$20-100
million
Primary industries:
We believe that great businesses exist in every industry. We have deep expertise and a long track record investing in industrial, consumer, distribution, and business services companies as well as perspectives in healthcare and financial services.
Business attributes:
We specialize in family and founder led businesses looking to bring on an outside investor; quite often for the first time. We also work with management teams looking to transition from private equity ownership to a longer-term investor or an experienced management team looking to acquire businesses in their legacies industries.
Case in point: Lakeshirts/Blue 84
The Lakeshirts story started more than 35 years ago with two teenage entrepreneurs. Mark Fritz and Mike Hutchinson began printing t-shirts in their basement to sell during the summer on the mile-long beach of Detroit Lakes, MN. Today, Lakeshirts employs approximately 1,000 team members and serves more than 3,000 resort town retailers and 2,000 college bookstores and retailers and many happy customers. Check your closet, you probably have some of their merchandise. What started in a basement next to the lake has grown to a 300,000-square-foot, vertically integrated manufacturing and distribution facility in Detroit Lakes, MN, a nearly 110,000-square-foot facility in Little Falls, MN and a 25,000-square-foot facility in Los Angeles, CA. Lakeshirts has partnered with CPC to develop a long-term plan to grow its business while staying true to the Minnesota values that have taken it so far.
“We have been fortunate to build an exceptional business in our hometown through commitment to our people and our community and wanted to find a partner who shared our values. Carlson Private Capital’s investment will help us accelerate our business’ growth and, more importantly, allow for growth in jobs and continued support of Detroit Lakes.”