Middleton Private Equity
Middleton Partners invests in both Branded and non-Branded Manufacturing and Distribution businesses across various sectors, including, but not limited to, Consumer, Retail, Foodservice, Food, Hospitality, Fitness, and more.
Middleton Partners focuses on leveraging our operational and industry experience in conjunction with a hands-on approach, leading to long-term and sustainable value creation.
Middleton’s team has extensive experience across industries and asset classes, resulting in a strong universe of internal and external operating partners for each investment.
We unlock value through our unique team comprised of enterpreneurs, executives, and investment professionals.
Industry Expertise
Extensive Network
Operational Improvements
Dedicated Investor Base
Current Areas of Focus
New platforms in Consumer Products and Commercial Foodservice
Add-on acquisitions in Consumer Products (O2C Brands) or Commercial Fitness (TAG Fitness)
Investment Criteria
Size
New Platforms: We focus on opportunities between $2,000,000-$20,000,000 of EBITDA.
Add-on Businesses: Typically looking for greater than $5mm of revenue
Sector
New Platforms: Broad interest across Manufacturing and Distribution businesses based in the USA
Add-on Businesses: Orphaned brands or businesses in the retail (outdoor, housewares, fitness, beach, cooling, seasonal, baby, pet) and commercial fitness space.
Investment Approach
We invest in industries where our experience and expertise unlock unique opportunities. We can leverage these opportunities through businesses at an inflection point where our industry experience and flexible capital lead to strong outcomes.
Current Investments
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O2C Brands
Sector: Consumer
O2C Brands is a consumer platform business comprised of six leading brands operating at the intersection of outdoor, juvenile, and family fun. O2C bring innovation to a diverse channel of customers.
Our brands include: O2COOL, Treva, Green Sprouts, Lunchbots, Ecovessel, and Ukonserve.
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TAG Fitness
Sector: Commercial Fitness
TAG Fitness is a commercial fitness platform, focusing on bringing quality strength equipment to the vertical fitness segment. Our end customers include, Fitness, Education, Multi-family, Corporate, Hospitality, Municipal, and more.
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Sector: Commercial Foodservice
Middleton capitalized this Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) and structured its merger with Pinstripes Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PNST), an innovative operator of a unique destination dining and entertainment concept growing quickly across the US.
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Sector: Commercial Foodservice
Middleton incubated this unique online foodservice equipment marketplace and successfully exited via sale to a national foodservice equipment distributor
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Sector: Commercial Foodservice
Middleton acquired and grew this nationally known manufacturer of custom table coverings and successfully exited via sale to a well-known foodservice industry strategic buyer
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Sectors: Consumer, Commercial Foodservice, Hospitality
Formed through the purchase of select businesses of the Storage Products Group division from Leggett & Platt, Focus Products Group was a collection of brands and businesses in the housewares, foodservice, and hospitality industry. Through organic growth and 16 accretive acquisitions, Focus Products Group grew into a business with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. Focus Products Group was sold in 2006 to a Chicago-based private equity group.
*Represents investments made by Team’s prior investing entities
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Sector: Commercial Foodservice
Chicago-based manufacturer with a primary focus on commercial storage products. Ownership successfully exited this investment to Leggett & Platt, a publicly-traded company.
Exited Investments
Meet the Team
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Keith Jaffee
Keith Jaffee’s career has spanned over 3 decades with a focus on buying and building companies in consumer products and commercial foodservice equipment. He is a hands-on operator focused on process improvement, brand building, and acquisitions that offer value creation through synergy and consolidation.
Prior to founding Middleton, Keith served as CEO of a number of businesses, including AMCO and Focus Products Group.
Keith currently sits on the Board of Tag Fitness and O2C Brands.
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Jerry Hyman
Jerry Hyman was the CEO of TriMark USA for 17 years, from 2003 to 2020, leading it to become the largest foodservice dealer in the US.
During his time as CEO, annual revenue increased from $50 million to $2.1 billion. He successfully executed an industry roll-up strategy and transformed the business with both acquisition-driven and organic growth.
Additionally, he founded NexGen Procurement Corp., a unique industry buying group, whose members consisted of TriMark USA and several of the other largest, competing distributors in the foodservice equipment space. Under his leadership, NexGen grew to over $4 billion in purchasing volume and changed the dynamics in the industry.
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Matt Jaffee
Matt leads the day-to-day efforts across Middleton’s operating business and other opportunistic investments.
Matt currently sits on the Board of Tag Fitness, O2C Brands, and OpenSeason.
Previously, Matt served as Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at FSX, Board Member at Maurice Outdoors, Advisor to Banyan Acquisition Corp., and Strategic Advisor to The Bazaar.
Prior to joining Middleton, Matt worked at GCM Grosvenor, an alternative asset management firm. He graduated from The University of Texas at Austin – Red McCombs School of Business in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree of business, with a focus on corporate finance.
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Nav Kalsi
Nav focuses on opportunities in the broader consumer products and food service sectors.
Nav currently sits on the Board of Tag Fitness, and he also serves as an Advisor to O2C Brands and to Eastside Golf, a fast-growing consumer lifestyle apparel company.
Previously, Nav spent more than 20 years as a consumer products-focused investment banker at a number of leading global firms. Most recently he led consumer products investment banking coverage at BMO Capital Markets and at Rothschild & Co, a leading global advisory firm.
Nav holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Lafayette College. He lives in the suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two boys.
