Malco Tools has announced via social media that they were acquired by the Aspen Pumps Group.
Malco describes their new owner as being “a global leader in HVAC/R products and solutions,” and that this will help bring their tools to a wider audience of trade professionals.
With a bit of searching around, we learned that Aspen Pumps is owned by Inflexion, a private equity firm.
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Inflexion owned Aspen Pumps from 2007 through 2015 before selling it to another company, and they repurchased Aspen at the end of 2019.
According to a press release I found, Malco’s CEO and president will take on the role of CEO of Aspen Pumps Group North America. Malco’s current headquarters in Annandale, Minnesota will become Aspen’s North American headquarters.
The same release says that Malco will be “bringing on new tools and product lines that will serve a larger HVAC/R market.”
It’ll be interesting to see what this will mean for tool users.
BigTimeTommy
Private equity firm? Welp, RIP Malco, going to be garbage from here on out. I liked the connext bit holders and reversible nut setter bits.
Jason
That was my first through as well. Private Equity Firm is code for Vulture Capitalist.
DC
Yep and made in china.
James Flowers
Immediately thought of a four letter word when I saw private equity.
John S
Private Equity is slowly destroying the American Dream to replace it with its counterparts- venture capitalist gambling and stock manipulation. I live tools because they allow a man (or lady or whatever else) to take their economic life into our own hands and make our way through honest hardwork and discipline. Construction is one of the last places you can do that and I worry for how much longer. I’ve moved from a carpenters assistant making $16 an hour to an upper middle class living as a construction manager without college or handouts and I feel so fortunate for that opportunity but I fear it won’t be there for the next generation.
Nathan
Do we happen to know what else the private equity firm holds? Maybe there is some other common ground
Stuart
I don’t recognize any of the names – https://www.inflexion.com/portfolio/ .
Aspen owns some industry-specific brands –
https://www.aspenpumps.com/en-gb as well as Unilite.
fred
Looking at their profile on the WEB – I recognize one of the owned companies – namely Avantus Aerospace. That apparently is the new company name for Shimtech – and parts made by them or their subsidiaries were sometimes specified by our clients to go into assemblies we were fabricating.
Otherwise, the Inflexion portfolio looks like a rather odd mix of companies with seemingly no single sort of connection. IMO PE buyouts often look for cows to milk dry and/or slim-down and sell off – rather than for companies to reinvigorate. Time will tell about how this works out for Malco.
Nathan
I recognize one or two but I also note a number are British based. It will be interesting to see what happens
PW
Whelp, it was nice while I knew ye Malco. PE firms are the kiss of death for quality.
Probably the first move will be to shutter remaining US production and offshore everything, followed by loading up the firm with debt. Finally try and offload the husk to someone else before sales reflect the new, shittier offerings.
Cannot express how much I despise these corporate tapeworms in our economy.
eddiesky
PE firms are the kiss of death for quality….. just look at Remington.
PE should be illegal. Its like patent trolls that sit on IP, but never make the invention/item/property. Just sit on it, and troll for suing. And PE chop and sell off, making it look like a sweet, lean portfolio…to trade/sell to another. Insider’s gambling.
fred
This move to PE ownership is a bit strange in that Malco was an ESOP company. I’m not sure if the Keymer Family still had a controlling interest – but I recall reading that the company had become 100% employee owned. Perhaps some employees (like Keymer Family executives) wanted to sell out.
Kyle
Looking past the bad reputation that PE gets, mature companies aren’t sold to these groups in a vacuum. Circumstances induced a sale, and in many cases those circumstances are such that the company would no longer be viable without making significant changes. Unfortunately for tool aficionados, good products don’t always make for a good business. I hope that isn’t the case for Malco. I don’t know anything about the outcomes of other companies purchased by this particular group, but I do know Malco has made some fantastic products over the years. I still use some Malco tools that had belonged to my grandfather and are older than I am.
fred
By industry standards Malco is a rather young company – being a start-up in the early 1950’s. I probably did not hear of them until the 1980’s when I bought some of their siding tools – but their market may have been more robust around their base in Minnesota than it was in the East. What started as a family business to make it this long is nonetheless remarkable. Reading about the Keymer family a bit more, I learned that the last family member (Dave Keymer) involved with Malco – had retired in 2023. So, I was wrong in speculating that family management pushed the sale to PE.
Kyle
Well I was born in the early 1990s so 1980s tools are still older than me! I suspect my old inherited benders, siding punch and trim nail setter are probably from the 70s-80s. Those still work as good as new, although my grandfather’s old M1 snips are shot. My dad’s 90s vintage M1s are still going strong though.
Any PE scenario is going to involve some restructuring, let’s just hope it enables Malco to keep doing what they do well.
Another Bob
Many companies have dealt with crippling cost increases on labor, materials, shipping etc due to inflationary conditions the last couple years. Also there was the vice grip/eagle grip fiasco. Bellwether for the “behind closed doors” decisions made at Malco or just shifting market forces that can’t be controlled or planned for?
Unless someone spills, the beans we will really never know.
I’m a dyed in the wool capitalist believing in market forces to self correct. But I hate the raping and pillaging of quality manufacturing by PE.
I’m probably being naïve, but maybe the recent trend to onshore with focus on automation can keep the quality and COO the same?
BigTimeTommy
“I’m a dyed in the wool capitalist believing in market forces to self correct. But I hate the raping and pillaging of quality manufacturing by PE.”
I can’t imagine typing those sentences one after the other and not having a cognitive dissonance induced stroke.
Another Bob
Some overall positive forces have some unpleasant realities. Just because I find a particular attribute of free market capitalism distasteful doesn’t mean it isn’t a necessary fact of reality.
The market is a fickle mistress but please dont let her give you a stroke!
Emilio
PE does not care about quality. Profits only. Before they bust out the company, they will outsource, layoff and bring cheaper, less skilled workers. Don’t expect anything great. It’s called Vulture Capitalism. What does a bunch of suits care about tools or workers?I won’t buy a damned thing from Malco now.