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Huron Capital Merges Northwest Pallet Services and Prime Woodcraft

Northwest Pallet Expected to benefit from Prime Woodcraft’s innovative approach and combined resources

DETROIT (Sep. 9, 2019) — Huron Capital (“Huron”), a leading lower-middle-market private equity firm, today announced it has made an additional equity investment in its industry leading pallet platform, Northwest Pallet Holdings, LLC (“Northwest Pallet”). Through this investment, Huron is combining Northwest Pallet and Prime Woodcraft Inc. (“Prime”). The combined company will be headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Northwest Pallet is a Schaumburg, Illinois-based pallet solutions company with more than 30 years of experience in recycling, manufacturing and repairing new and used pallets of various shapes and sizes. Prime, an innovative and growing pallet management service provider with nationwide coverage, is based in Brunswick, Ohio.

“This merger allows us to bring together two great commercial teams and leverage our combined capabilities to more effectively serve our clients,” said Northwest Pallet President and CEO, Jack Donnell, “We believe Prime’s innovative approach to pallet management solutions, along with Northwest Pallet’s resources and infrastructure, will enable us to provide unique solutions and scale to our customers while continuing to expand the combined business.”

Donnell will serve as President and CEO of the combined company while Prime founder and CEO Ansir Junaid will serve as a board member and significant shareholder in Northwest Pallet.

“I’m confident in the choice to partner with Northwest Pallet, a Huron Capital portfolio company, for several reasons. Both of our companies have complementary capabilities that fit together nicely and are expected to serve as a growth platform moving forward,” said Junaid, who will be actively involved in the combined company post-closing. “I’m proud to have been part of building and growing Prime, and I remain committed to ensuring customer relationship success well into our future.”

“This strategic merger creates a platform that substantially increases Northwest Pallet’s scale, providing a partner for customers that is among the largest in the marketplace,” said Huron Capital Vice President Matt Lacki. “The innovative industry approach developed by Prime is expected to add more than just scale to the combined company. Prime’s expertise and customer collaboration is another reason why we are thrilled that Junaid will remain actively involved in the company going forward.”

About Huron Capital

Based in Detroit, Huron Capital is an operationally focused private equity firm with a long history of growing lower middle-market companies through our proprietary ExecFactor® and buy-and-build investment models. We prefer complex situations where we believe we can help companies reach their full potential by combining our operational and strategic resources, substantial capital base, and transaction experience with seasoned operating executives. Over the past two decades, Huron Capital has successfully established six investment funds totaling approximately $1.8 billion in capital and has completed over 175 transactions throughout North America. Huron Capital portfolio companies have had aggregate annual revenues exceeding $3.0 billion, 15,000 employees and operated over 325 facilities. Huron Capital targets both control and non-control equity stakes in fundamentally sound companies that the firm believes can benefit from its operational approach to creating value. These transactions typically take the form of equity recapitalizations, family succession transactions, market-entry strategies, corporate carve-outs, and management buyouts of companies having revenues up to $200 million. Huron Capital’s sector focus includes business services, consumer products & services and specialty industrials. For more information, please visit: www.huroncapital.com.

About Northwest Pallet Services

Northwest Pallet Services is one of the nation’s leading pallet supply management corporations and can guarantee superior service and competitive pricing. The company provides pallet management services to major retail accounts nationwide, including over 6,500 retail stores and distribution centers, by acting as a single point of contact between its customers and its network of over 1,000 local pallet recyclers. With over 30 years of experience, it continually proves its sustainability in an otherwise volatile marketplace. Northwest Pallet specializes in the recycling, remanufacturing, building of new, and repairing of pallets in any shape or size. For more information, please visit: http://www.northwestpallet.com/

About Prime Woodcraft

Established in 1997 in the Cleveland, Ohio area by Ansir Junaid, Prime Woodcraft provides innovative and sustainable pallet management and packaging solutions to customers across the United States. By employing expert onsite evaluations, talented professionals and comprehensive online reporting, Prime develops unique, environmentally friendly, data transparent and economical programs for many major and mid-major retailers.  Prime’s current array of offerings include comprehensive on-site management programs (COMP), complete pallet and packaging recycling services, new and recycled pallet sales along with sourcing and logistics solutions. For more information, please visit: https://primewoodcraft.com.

Certain information herein may contain forward-looking statements which are provided to assist the reader in understanding the beliefs and opinions with respect to future opportunities as perceived by Huron Capital and others quoted herein. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual performance in future periods to differ materially from any projections or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The issuer of these statements undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or estimates or opinions should change except as may be required by applicable securities laws.