Florida private equity firm KLH Capital announced Thursday that it has completed a “recapitalization” of longtime Maryland distributor and manufacturer’s rep N.H. Yates & Company.
Yates provides HVAC, plumbing and hydronic equipment and parts to the industrial, commercial, residential and data center end markets in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, including pumps, circulators, boilers, water heaters, valves, press fittings, installation tools, gas regulators, and thermal energy storage tanks. It also provides inside and outside sales coverage and support and training capabilities as a rep agency.
KLH officials said that the more than 75-year-old company continues to grow amid the need to replace aging HVAC and plumbing systems, conform to stricter energy-efficiency standards, and meet demand from contractors and data center developers.
The company, based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, operates warehouses in Maryland, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
“Yates has built an embedded, trusted position across a channel network that would be difficult for a competitor to replicate, and the team’s focus on training, technical support, and customer service is what makes that position so durable,” KLH Operating Partner Brad Gates said in a statement.
CEO Jon Thomas and COO Dan Kelbaugh, Yates' co-owners, will continue to lead the company and will be “significant shareholders” under the agreement with KLH. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Dan and I have spent our careers building relationships with the manufacturers we partner with and the customers we serve, and this partnership gives us the resources to add product lines, carry more inventory, and grow into new territories,” Thomas said. “KLH shares our commitment to our employees and to the customers and manufacturers who have trusted Yates for more than 75 years.”
