Pancho Hall, chairman and CEO of P&THE.
Based in metro Detroit, minority business P&THE Manufacturing LLC recently announced the acquisition of a major company that will help to make the company a key player in the global marketplace.
P&THE Manufacturing LLC, a Minority Business Enterprise holding company, made up of businesses that provide high performing manufacturing solutions. Now, the company has acquired Ohio-based business USAC Ross, LLC, making it the first acquisition for P&THE Manufacturing. For more than 90 years, Ross has been supplying aluminum castings in aerospace, performance racing, diesel engine, and power generation through a series of different owners. Now, with P&THE Manufacturing at the helm, the company will not only continue the legacy, but drive it to the next level.
“We are happy to keep Ross Aluminum operational in Sidney under new ownership and management and excited to launch plans to grow the employee count over 300 percent with support from the state, county and city,” said Pancho Hall, Chairman and CEO of P&THE.
Launched in 2019 with four African Americans leading the charge, P&THE Manufacturing LLC provides high performing manufacturing solutions through business acquisitions and joint ventures. With the purchase of the assets, including property, equipment and real estate of USAC Ross, LLC, P&THE is able to move into the next phase of the company’s overall mission.
“It allows us to be in a position where we’re producing something that nine out of ten, or maybe 19 out of 20, aluminum casters can’t produce. It puts us in a really unique position where we don’t necessarily have patents but the intellectual property is sort of the proven artistry around how they build these castings that others can’t build,” said Hall.
Before Ross was acquired the company was operated by Eaton. However, it was short-lived as Eaton was only able to keep it afloat for a year. With previous dealings, P&THE was familiar with Eaton thus laying the foundation to a budding business relationship.
“P&THE Holding was introduced to Eaton Corporation in 2019 as they [were] starting to try to earn their way to the billion-dollar roundtable while rationalizing their supply chain. One of the members of their team ran into me at a meeting and asked if I might participate so that kind of got me connected to Eaton,” said Hall.
December 2021 marked one year for Eaton’s ownership of Ross. Asked to consider taking on Ross, P&THE began to do the necessary work to evaluate the business.
“We took our manufacturing team, which consists of, when we went in, 10 people with pretty deep backgrounds across all the buckets you might want to have. Just really well-educated, a lot of good experience across the buckets; everything from manufacturing excellence to technology to CFOs to business development to supply chain; basically, covered the gambit,” said Hall. “We went in and took a hard look and much as Eaton had prepped us, the real gem was the team and the people in the building and what they could do.”
Deciding to pursue the acquisition, P&THE was on the fast track to obtaining Ross. With assistance from several investors, the acquisition became finalized in April 2022.
“We had to basically work at getting it done in six to eight weeks which is typically something that takes four to five months, but that’s the window that the private equity holder gave us,” said Hall.
SWS Capital Management provided all the debt financing helping to move the acquisition in the right direction.
“A lot of folks were pleasantly surprised we were able to do the near impossible and get the deal done and closed by April 4,” said Hall.
Looking to invest in the industrial sectors in the middle market in North America, the company’s first acquisition fits into their strategy to gain a collection of world-class enterprises that serve global communities by providing customers with the highest quality manufacturing parts and services as their Global MBE of choice.
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