HFW Completes First Acquisition
Experienced Lower Middle Market Investor VSS Provides Flexible Capital to Support Growth of New Platform Company
NEW YORK and ST. LOUIS, MO – November 9, 2021 – VSS Capital Partners (“VSS”), a private investment firm investing in the healthcare, information, business services and education industries, today announced its partnership with The HFW Companies (“HFW” or the “Company”), a newly formed platform and partnership focused on investing in architecture, engineering, and construction (“AEC”) services firms. Concurrently, HFW is pleased to introduce its first member firm – Miller Legg, an award-winning multi-disciplinary engineering and consulting firm based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Financial terms of the transactions were not disclosed.
Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, HFW is led by an executive team of three industry veterans who have experience in AEC services including prior operating, investment, and leadership experience. Recognizing the high degree of fragmentation in the industry, the team set up HFW to execute a buy-and-build strategy focused on AEC firms who are interested in transitioning partial ownership of their businesses. HFW will serve as an integral partner to any AEC firm that joins its platform to ensure its successful continuity, preservation of equity ownership, current brand identity and operational independence.
“We are very impressed by the experienced leadership team of HFW, who brings deep strategic insight, business acumen and decades of operational experience, coupled with a powerful business model that is simple, innovative and non-disruptive,” said Jeffrey Stevenson, Managing Partner of VSS. “We are excited to provide HFW with VSS’ flexible capital solutions to support their next chapter of growth. We believe there is a great opportunity for them to share and implement best practices for the benefit of all its member firms.”
“In VSS, we have found a partner who brings the credentials, acquisition experience, industry know-how and familiarity with the operations of lower mid-market businesses,” said Michael Hein, CEO of HFW. “Our goal is to develop HFW into an organization with an exceptional ‘House of Brands’ that provides our member firms with the resources, benefits of scale, added depth of human resources and subject matter experts to create new growth opportunities for their businesses and employees.”
HFW is focused on building a network of well-recognized AEC brand firms across the United States. The Company’s business model is designed to preserve the brand recognition, loyal employee base and customer allegiance of AEC owners who join its platform. The AEC market is estimated to total more than $200 billion, according to industry data.
“We’re thrilled to partner with CEO Mike Hein and his talented team who share our vision for delivering an exceptional customer-focused experience, and we look forward to benefitting from their collective knowledge and ability to continue growing our business in Florida and beyond,” said Mike Kroll, President of Miller Legg. “We are convinced that HFW is the right platform for expanding our business.”
HFW’s three founders, Mike Hein, COO Matt Westphal, and CFO Dan Forguson will spend 100 percent of their time on HFW and serve as the executive team of the platform.
Crewe Capital, LLC served as financial advisor to HFW.
About VSS
VSS is a private investment firm that invests in the healthcare, information, business services and education industries. Headquartered in New York, VSS provides capital for growth financing, recapitalizations, strategic acquisitions, and buyouts to lower middle market companies and management teams with the goal of building companies organically as well as through a focused add-on acquisition program. VSS makes privately negotiated investments across the capital structure and invests in situations requiring control or non-control equity, mezzanine securities, and structured equity securities. VSS has over three decades of experience, made investments in 91 portfolio companies, with over 370 add-on acquisitions, and manages $4 billion in aggregate committed capital across 8 funds. For more information, please visit: www.vss.com.
About HFW Companies
Based in St. Louis, HFW is an AEC industry professional services company investing in architecture and engineering firms who serve metropolitan and infrastructure markets and are open to aligning with a partner for growth. Our member firms, grounded by technical excellence, solve the most important problems facing our built environment, making communities better through creative design, engineering, and planning. For more information, please visit: www.hfwcompanies.com