Gryphon-backed companies represent a microcosm of the middle market. From Reno to St. Louis, King of Prussia to Plano, our portfolio companies span the country. We work closely with each to support their efforts, from growing market share and financial performance to streamlining operations and building high performance teams. Learn more about our companies and our work together.
Case Studies
Review some of our case studies through the lens of Gryphon's strategy: Focus, Partner, Build, Lead.
focuspartnerbuildlead: Allied Security
Given the stage of the economic cycle in the late 1990's, Gryphon was highly focused on investments in recession-resistant industries with stable but superior long-term growth prospects. Such focus resulted in a proactive industry initiative to build a company with a strategy of higher quality services in the $12 billion security guard industry. After contacting over 70 potential platform companies, Gryphon acquired in 1998 SpectaGuard, a leading regional company with $70 million of revenues that focused on recruiting, training, and retaining quality guards, and enjoyed industry leading profit margins. Management and Gryphon then aggressively focused on attractive consolidation opportunities through add-on acquisitions and organic growth initiatives. Renamed Allied Security in 2000, the company targeted its higher quality services on six vertical markets, including "class A" high-rise office buildings and shopping centers. With a large sales and marketing team built during Gryphon's ownership, Allied Security ultimately became a national company and the market leader in many major U.S. cities. Five years after our initial investment, Allied Security was the industry's largest private company with revenues in excess of $500 million. Gryphon sold the company in 2003 through a management buyout and realized 3x our total investment.
focuspartnerbuildlead: Bright Now! Dental
Gryphon's investment in Bright Now! Dental began when the firm proactively targeted the $70+ billion dental services industry in partnership with a health-care services management team including Steve Bilt. A potentially highly profitable, yet highly fragmented industry, Gryphon and Mr. Bilt were convinced there was an opportunity to create a market leader and jointly identified the right acquisition to build a platform company. We completed the acquisition of Consumer Dental Offices, renaming the entity Bright Now! Dental, and within 90 days had orchestrated two additional acquisitions that provided the company a total of 46 dental offices in four key U.S. markets. That was 1998. Subsequently, Mr. Bilt was named CEO and, together with Gryphon, built a team and an infrastructure that is now the envy of the industry. Today, following years of exceptional organic growth, new office openings, and the add-on acquisitions of publicly traded Monarch Dental and Castle Dental, Bright Now! Dental is the industry’s leading company with a national network of approximately 300 offices and revenues approaching $400 million. Mr. Bilt's and Gryphon's disciplined partnership to build a high value-added company resulted in Gryphon returning $171 million at exit in 2005 on an aggregate investment of $71 million.
focuspartnerbuildlead: Eight O'Clock Coffee
Building leading businesses is hard work but creates real value. For example, Gryphon uncovered in 2003 a "diamond in the rough" within the attractive coffee industry. The "diamond" was Eight O'Clock Coffee, an under-managed branded company nearly 150 years old with an over-50% share in the packaged whole bean coffee market. The "rough" was the combination of Eight O'Clock Coffee's ownership by a distressed, cash constrained grocery chain and the fact that Eight O'Clock Coffee was not stand-alone company — it depended on extensive corporate services, office space, and management resources from the parent company. Where other private equity firms saw headaches and challenges, Gryphon saw opportunity to build a leading consumer product company. Since acquiring the company in late 2003 with its President and subsequent CEO, Barbara Roth, we have together executed our plan of: hiring a CFO, VP of Sales, and VP of Operations; supporting the major introduction of a ground coffee product line; implementing new IT systems; improving manufacturing operations; relocating into stand-alone corporate headquarters; and, launching an exciting TV advertising campaign for the first time in company history. The result? In record time, Eight O'Clock Coffee was built into a company on the move, with a distinct value gourmet product offering and independent capabilities to guide its own destiny. The value? Gryphon exited its investment in Eight O'Clock Coffee in 2006, realizing 3x our original investment and an IRR of 60+%.
focuspartnerbuildlead: TASQ Technology
Using credit or debit cards instead of cash has become commonplace for today's consumers. Combine this trend with the move by many financial institutions to outsource management of their point of sale (POS) systems, and Rocklin, California-based TASQ Technology was at the center of a hot market. Through a proactive industry initiative targeting this sector, Gryphon's proprietary analyses and discussions revealed that TASQ was developing a leading competitive position that could be built upon further. In 1998, the founders of TASQ and Gryphon completed a leveraged recapitalization that provided the company with capital to fuel market expansion while providing the founders with sizable personal liquidity. In partnership, Gryphon and TASQ management aggressively pursued a plan to firmly establish TASQ as the long-term leader in its sector. A successful growth strategy was executed that ultimately included two add-on acquisitions. In parallel, the company built a 100,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility to absorb the dramatic increases in volume as revenues doubled to $100 million in just three years. Viewed by strategic parties as the leader in its field as a result of these efforts, TASQ was acquired by First Data Corporation in 2001, providing Gryphon with a return of 4x our original investment.
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