BrandFX Body Co., a manufacturer of advanced composite truck bodies, inserts, toppers and covers for service fleets, has a new owner.
Time Manufacturing Holdings LLC, a Waco, Texas-based global manufacturer of bucket trucks, digger derricks, cable placers, service bodies and other specialty equipment for fleet-supported industries, announced Nov. 6 it had acquired the company.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Going forward, the company will be known as BrandFX, a Time Manufacturing Co., and will continue to serve fleet customers in telecommunications, electric utility, sign and light, municipal and other service body applications globally.
Time Manufacturing also owns the Aspen Aerials and Versalift brands. Aspen Aerials makes bridge inspection equipment, while Versalift makes aerial lifts, bucket trucks and other specialty equipment for many of the same industries as BrandFX.
"With this acquisition, we are better able to serve our customers with the most available units and to expand upon our offering of smarter-designed utility fleets," Curt Howell, CEO of Time Manufacturing, said in a statement. "We continue to offer the promise of the safest and the most reliable equipment with the lowest true cost of ownership, and to extend that value proposition to BrandFX customers."
BrandFX employs more than 280 at its headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, and additional facilities in Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana and Georgia. Time Manufacturing now leverages a team of more than 1,400 across 18 company-owned facilities throughout North America and Europe.
Prior to BrandFX's sale, the company was owned by Stonebridge Partners LLC, a private investment firm in White Plains, N.Y. Stonebridge Managing Director Steve Hanna confirmed in an email to Plastics News that it had sold BrandFX to Time Manufacturing.
Ironwood Capital, an Avon, Conn.-based private equity firm, also announced an exit from its investment in BrandFX. In June 2018, the firm said it had invested in the company's subordinated debt.
"BrandFX management built a strong business and attractive acquisition target, creating an industry innovator and leader," Alex Levental, managing director of Ironwood Capital, said in a statement. "Time Manufacturing is a great fit with the BrandFX business. We look forward to watching the new company grow and wish them well."
Representatives from both Ironwood Capital and Time Manufacturing/Versalift declined further comment.