360training Acquires AdvanceOnline — Expanding Online Training Footprint with New DOT CMV Courses
AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — One of the leading Environmental, Health, and Safety online regulated training providers, 360training, has acquired AdvanceOnline. Through this acquisition, 360training continues to grow their OSHA Online Outreach program and expands their extensive library to include DOT transportation safety training courses, including CMV Driver and CMV Motor Carrier Management.
AdvanceOnline Solutions provides professional and educational environmental health and safety services to corporations, associations, and government agencies involved in the construction, transportation, manufacturing, energy, and utility industries.
AdvanceOnline offers high-quality online training. They were among the first to be accepted by the OSHA Outreach Program for issuing official DOL OSHA course completion cards. With over 120 courses in their catalog, AdvanceOnline is a welcome addition to the 360training family of companies.
Ryan Linders, CMO at 360training, adds, "The acquisition of AdvanceOnline demonstrates our commitment to continue to add high quality programs and brands to 360training. It presents a fantastic opportunity to expand our capabilities and market share in the Environmental, Health & Safety industry vertical and opens the door for us to offer complimentary courses and products, available under the 360training brand, to our corporate customers, Affiliates, and Resellers."
AdvanceOnline History
AdvanceOnline provides exceptional e-Learning and video-based content to help companies comply with federal health and safety regulations, including OSHA Outreach titles like OSHA 10-Hour Construction, OSHA 30-Hour Construction, OSHA 10-Hour General. They are one of a few companies with authorization from OSHA to provide these courses and offer NYC (New York City) Site-Safety Training. Their DOT content was developed in conjunction with the Department of Transportation. "AdvanceOnline aligns perfectly with 360training's goal to provide engaging and comprehensive training programs that prevent workplace injury and enhances public safety." Samantha Montalbano, COO of 360training.
Acquisition by 360training
360training is focused on accelerating growth in support of its mission to provide enhanced training solutions across regulated markets. The acquisition of AdvanceOnline aligns with that mission because the two companies share similar goals.
"The synergy between 360training and AdvanceOnline makes sense. AdvanceOnline was founded to help companies comply with strict health and safety regulations which echoes 360training's mission of enabling a safe environment through regulatory training. By joining together, we're able to enhance workplace safety for communities across the nation." Tom Anderson, CEO of 360training.
About AdvanceOnline
Headquartered in Houston, TX, AdvanceOnline Solutions provides professional and educational environmental health and safety services to corporations, associations, and government agencies involved in the construction, transportation, manufacturing, energy, and utility industries. With over 75 years of collective experience in safety training development, delivery and consulting, their team develops high-quality, affordable web-based and classroom training for students and corporations to maintain and exceed compliance to government, industry, and company defined safety standards and requirements.
About 360training
Since 1997, 360training.com, Inc. provides individuals and businesses with online regulatory-approved training, facilitating a safe, healthy environment for their communities. We have delivered over 11 million training plans across multiple brands, including 360training, Meditec, AgentCampus, VanEd, OSHAcampus, OSHA.com, TIPS, and Learn2Serve. Please visit www.360training.com or their social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to learn more.
Dr. Praeger’s Sensible Foods Appoints Steve Polonowski as Chief Customer Officer
Elmwood Park, NJ – December 21, 2022 – Dr. Praeger’s Sensible Foods (“Dr. Praeger’s” or the “Company”), a leading brand specializing in delicious, nutritious plant-based frozen foods made from simple ingredients, announced today that Steve Polonowski has joined the Company as Chief Customer Officer. Dr. Praeger’s is a portfolio company of Vestar Capital Partners.
“Steve brings an impressive track record of building health-oriented brands through strategic customer partnerships and building strong teams. His diverse experience with better-for-you brands in different categories, customers and channels will be a huge asset for the team at Dr. Praeger’s,” said Dr. Praeger’s CEO Andy Reichgut.
Mr. Polonowski has worked at global, industry leading consumer packaged goods companies including PepsiCo and Glanbia Performance Nutrition, and most recently at smaller brands such as Amazing Grass, Simple Mills and BetterBrand. In his most recent position, he served as President and Chief Commercial Officer at BetterBrand, where he partnered with the founder to build an emerging and disruptive brand in the marketplace. Prior to that, he was the Chief Sales Officer for Simple Mills, another Vestar portfolio company. Steve holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and an MBA from Michigan State University.
“I am incredibly excited to join Andy and the Dr. Praeger's team to accelerate growth of this fantastic brand,” said Mr. Polonowski. “We are uniquely positioned to help consumers eat healthier by simply making veggies into great tasting and convenient food."
About Dr. Praeger’s
For over 25 years, Dr. Praeger’s Sensible Foods has offered delicious and convenient frozen food options for the whole family. Founded by two heart surgeons determined to make healthy food easily accessible, Dr. Praeger’s is a leader in the all-natural, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and kosher frozen food categories and has a wide range of products including Veggie Burgers, Bowls, Cakes, Puffs and Hash Browns, sustainable Seafood items, kids Littles and more. For more information visit www.drpraegers.com.
About Vestar Capital Partners
Vestar Capital Partners is a leading U.S. middle-market private equity firm specializing in management buyouts and growth capital investments. Vestar invests and collaborates with incumbent management teams and private owners to build long-term enterprise value, with a focus on Consumer, Business & Technology Services, and Healthcare. Since inception in 1988, Vestar funds have invested $11 billion in 90 companies – as well as more than 200 add-on acquisitions – with a total value of approximately $52 billion. For more information on Vestar, please visit www.vestarcapital.com.
Vestar invested in Nox Health to help you get a good night’s sleep
PE Hub
Vestar invested in Nox Health to help you get a good night’s sleep
The investment fits Vestar’s strategy of improving health outcomes, lowering costs and enhancing patient experience.
By Aaron Weitzman
Published December 15, 2022
Vestar Capital Partners recently made a significant minority strategic growth investment in Nox Health, a one-stop, holistic solution helping to identify, address and resolve sleep issues across the globe.
PE Hub spoke with Michael Vaupen, managing director at the New York-based firm to talk about what enticed Vestar to the Atlanta-based sleep health company, how the deal making process went and the plans to grow and scale the asset.
Vaupen said that Vestar was attracted to Nox for several reasons, with the first being the market opportunity, as sleep health is a “large and substantially underserved market with durable growth drivers.”
“Second, Nox’s solutions are well-positioned against this attractive market backdrop,” he said. “The company has built a differentiated portfolio of proprietary medical device IP, advanced software and analytics, and technology-enabled care management solutions which support the delivery of sleep care across the continuum of providers, payers and patient populations.”
The investment is well-aligned to Vestar’s thematic focus of solutions that improve health outcomes, lower costs and enhance patient experience, according to Vaupen.
The firm also sees many tailwinds that will help this investment.
“Aging demographics, increasing awareness of sleep health and an ongoing shift towards home-based testing will drive steady growth and demand for sleep diagnostics globally,” said Vaupen. “In addition, there is a growing body of clinical evidence strongly linking poor sleep health with chronic disease conditions, including hypertension and diabetes. As US healthcare continues to shift towards value-based care, we believe plan sponsors and at-risk providers will continue to seek ways to lower costs and improve outcomes within their managed populations – sleep care is playing an increasingly important role.”
He also added that historically, sleep disorders have been significantly underdiagnosed and therapy compliance rates have been low due to a fragmented and uncoordinated patient experience in sleep care.
“Nox’s patient-centric approach to comprehensive sleep care management, leveraging virtual care and home testing technology, results in a more seamless patient experience and leads to demonstrably better health outcomes and lower costs,” he said.
He noted that the Nox management team has built a “solid foundational platform that has delivered consistent and impressive growth through the years,” and that the capital from Vestar will help accelerate a number of organic growth initiatives.
“Those include development of the company’s sleep diagnostic devices and technology, as well as commercial team expansion to drive further adoption of Nox’s value-based care management services within employers and health plans,” explained Vaupen. “We also see an opportunity to augment Nox’s solution offering through strategic acquisitions.”
Despite the challenging and choppy deal environment this year, Vaupen said that the firm continued to “pick spots and focus on opportunities where we can leverage Vestar’s deep network, relationships and prior investment experience to bring differentiated value-add to a growth thesis.”
“Nox met many of those characteristics which allowed us to ‘lean into’ getting a deal done,” he said.
Stratus Acquires San Antonio-based Comet Signs
CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--December 07, 2022-- Stratus, the leading facilities services and brand implementation services firm, today announced the acquisition of Comet Signs, based in San Antonio, Texas. The combined organization now consists of over 1,100 employees throughout the United States.
With the acquisition of Comet Signs, Stratus will accelerate its growth in the Southwest and Western United States, leveraging Comet's substantial presence in key Texas areas including Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Tyler. Comet's expanded production capabilities and self-perform installation fleet will begin to serve Stratus' roster of blue-chip, nationwide brands in the region, and will help the company grow its overall business. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The Comet acquisition represents Stratus' third major acquisition since late 2019.
"Our teams immediately melded with each other -- we have a shared value system and strong beliefs in nurturing customer relationships and growth over time," noted Tim Eippert, CEO, Stratus. "Comet's reputation is stellar, and they've been careful and purposeful about growth, including hiring practices and employee satisfaction and retention."
Founded in 1958, Comet Signs, has expanded over time through organic growth and a series of mergers and acquisitions, and has become known as a leading exterior branding resource in the region. The company occupies a 180,000 square foot state-of-the-art production facility at its San Antonio headquarters, with an additional 70,000+ square feet of operations in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and Tyler, Texas.
"When Tim and I were getting to know each other, I could immediately picture myself and my team working side-by-side with Stratus," said Pete Sitterle, CEO, Comet Signs. "At Comet, we have grown by taking very good care of our customers. Tim and Stratus share that approach, the customer is always at the center of their minds. That's why this is such a great fit. We look forward to our customers taking advantage of everything Stratus has to offer, and we look forward to personally servicing Stratus' customers all across Texas."
Headquartered in Mentor, Ohio, Stratus has operations centers in Illinois, Ohio, Florida and New Jersey, and production facilities in Illinois and South Carolina. Stratus is a portfolio company of Vestar Capital Partners.
About Stratus
Stratus is a leading brand implementation and facilities services company offering signage solutions, energy services, repair and maintenance programs, and refresh and remodel capabilities across 50 states and 24 countries. With more than 50,000 projects completed annually, the Company provides versatile solutions for some of the world's largest and most recognized brands. Stratus is a portfolio company of Vestar Capital Partners. For more information, please visit www.stratusunlimited.com.
PE Hub Podcast: How PE pros are handling higher interest rates and the slowdown in dealmaking
In this first episode of the PE Hub miniseries, Private Markets and the End of Cheap Money, reporters talks to dealmakers from Corsair, OEP, Vestar and more to hear how sponsors are coping with the higher price of ‘L’ in LBOs.
Central banks around the world have been raising interest rates to combat inflation, making borrowing more expensive for everyone. That includes private equity firms, which for years have enjoyed historically low borrowing costs to finance leveraged buyouts. So how are private equity firms copying with the end of cheap money? To find out, reporters and editors across several PEI Group titles have spent the last few months speaking to dozens of industry participants to get their perspectives.
In this first episode of the five-part podcast miniseries, Private Markets and the End of Cheap Money, we look at how higher interest rates are playing out in private equity transactions and why certain areas of M&A (deals in the mid-market, in particular) may be facing outcomes different from what you might expect.
Mary Kathleen Flynn, editor-in-chief of PE Hub, spoke with a wide range of dealmakers, including private equity firm leaders, lenders and investment bankers, about the impact of high interest rates and other factors like high inflation on PE-backed transactions.
Featured in this episode: Norm Alpert, founding partner at Vestar Capital Partners; Greg Belinfanti, senior managing director of One Equity Partners; Marc Leder, co-founder and co-CEO of Sun Capital Partners; Ignacio Jayanti, CEO of Corsair Capital; Milwood Hobbs Jr, managing director and head of North American sourcing and origination at Oaktree; Michelle Handy, managing director and head of portfolio and underwriting of First Eagle Alternative Credit’s direct lending platform; and Peg Jackson, managing director, software, internet and digital media at Stifel.
Listen here on Apple Podcasts or on the PE Hub website.
