HBM Holdings Gears Up with Latest Acquisition

HBM Holdings today announced that it has acquired Schafer Industries, a producer of high-precision, custom-engineered gears and machined parts, as it expands its manufacturing portfolio.

Previously privately owned, South Bend, Indiana-based Schafer has grown organically and through acquisitions since it was founded in 1934, making it a prime candidate for HBM’s long-term approach to investing, which MMG highlighted in a profile of the firm in its Summer 2017 issue.

“Schafer is a perfect fit for our model, as the current ownership group is ready to transition the business to reach a new level of capability and success,” said Mike DeCola, HBM’s CEO, in a press release announcing the deal. Terms were not disclosed.

Schafer has four facilities in the Midwest and operates through two vertically integrated divisions. Schafer Gear Works manufactures gears in a variety of industries, including aerospace, industrial warehouse equipment and transportation applications in the automotive, agricultural and construction sectors. Schafer Driveline manufactures custom-engineered and -assembled transaxles and brake components for off-highway vehicles. The company is the fifth in HBM’s portfolio.

HBM plans to expand Schafer’s business and appointed as CEO Eric Van Rens, who has served as vice president of sales and marketing since 2004 for another HBM portfolio company, Mississippi Lime.

In the MMG profile, Ryan Supple, director of origination, described HBM’s overall investment strategy.

“It’s a different mentality,” Supple said. “It’s really an operator’s mentality at heart, not a financial engineer’s mentality.”

Read more about HBM Holdings and other investors driving growth in the transportation sector in the Summer 2017 issue of MMG.