GracoRoberts Acquires Pacific Coast Composites to Provide Customers with an Extensive Offering of Composites Products and Shorter Lead Times to the Aerospace Industry

Transaction Fortifies High-Value Technical Capability and Speed to Market

ARLINGTON, Texas, May 18, 2023 – GracoRoberts has acquired Washington-based Pacific Coast Composites (“PCC”) to significantly expand its composites materials offerings and underpin its standing as the largest, fastest, and most technical aerospace specialty chemicals distributor around the globe.

The addition of stocking distributor Pacific Coast Composites to the GracoRoberts family bolsters the organization’s product depth and breadth and amplifies its reach to customers and suppliers in the $31 billion (7.5% CAGR) aerospace composites market. As a go-to distributor for leading brands 3M, Hexcel, Aerovac, and Isovolta, PCC stocks nearly 400 composites products from 20 suppliers and 15 product categories including adhesives, bagging materials, pre-pregs, resins, honeycomb core, and more. With spec-driven in-house converting, and offering customers custom kitting and slitting capabilities, it is PCC’s rapid turn and same day shipping on made-to-order composites materials that truly sets the company apart. GracoRoberts will now offer immediate access to a historically long-lead time product offering – upwards of 30 days to one year – enabling next-level service and speed to market for its customer base.

In addition, PCC’s customers will benefit from a larger portfolio of products and channel partners in the specialty chemicals space from GracoRoberts, including Resin Formulators, GracoRoberts’ custom formulated line of epoxy resins. Through GracoRoberts’ world-class ecommerce platforms (www.skygeek.com, www.silmid.com, and www.gracoroberts.com), Pacific Coast Composites’ customers – and the global aerospace community at large – will benefit from easy access to composite materials in an unprecedented click-to-ship environment.

Jason Caldwell, President and CEO of GracoRoberts, commented on the transaction. “We are thrilled to welcome Pacific Coast Composites into the GracoRoberts family of brands. PCC has uniquely solved for long-lead times and excessive waste in the complex composites material space, and GracoRoberts has adopted an online first strategy to take those products to market. Together, we are significantly enhancing the overall customer experience by making it easier and faster to purchase the specific materials they need, with the quality they expect.”

Kevin Fochtman, President of Pacific Coast Composites, added, “We’ve developed a business centered on providing our customers with smaller, customized composites material sizes in a near 24-hour turnaround time. Culturally, we believe in giving our customers what they want, in the quantity they want, and most importantly, when they want it. We pride ourselves in solving problems, offering exceptional service, and adding real value that the customer can measure. Our focus on the customer is in absolute alignment with GracoRoberts, which makes our partnership such a natural fit.” Pacific Coast Composites will maintain its operations in Puyallup, Washington, and serve as a key distribution hub for GracoRoberts in the Northwestern United States.

The acquisition of Pacific Coast Composites is supported by CM Equity Partners, the private equity sponsor of GracoRoberts and partner to the GracoRoberts management team. CM Equity Partners has assisted GracoRoberts in its global and digital strategic growth initiatives through acquisitions of E.V. Roberts, Able Aerospace Adhesives, Sil-Mid Ltd., and most recently, SkyGeek.com. CM Equity Partners has over 30 years of experience providing growth capital to the aerospace, defense, and federal services industries.

About GracoRoberts

Headquartered in Arlington, TX, GracoRoberts (www.gracoroberts.com) is the single largest, fastest, and most technically focused specialty chemicals distributor to serve the global aerospace market. We are a full-service supplier of complex engineered materials for aerospace OEM and MRO segments, composites, electronics, and other advanced manufacturing industries. We are fully AS- and ISO-certified and authorized to distribute 3M, Airtech, Akzo Nobel, Castrol, Eastman, Henkel, Hexcel, Huntsman, ITW Polymers, Mask-Off, Momentive, Resin Formulators, Scott Bader, Sika, and Zip Chem, and can source other providers upon request. We differentiate by adding value: services include world-class ecommerce available through three websites (www.skygeek.com, www.silmid.com, and www.gracoroberts.com), core distribution, custom formulation, specialty packaging, vendor managed inventory, intermix and kitting services, turnkey classified program management, and an on-staff Chemist, lab, and testing facility. GracoRoberts prides itself in delivering superior engineered materials with impeccable support to thousands of customers from more than 65 countries and all seven continents around the globe.

About Pacific Coast Composites

Founded in 2001 by President Kevin Fochtman, Pacific Coast Composites (www.pccomposites.com) was born of a genuine need in the aerospace repair and maintenance industry for small quantities of composite materials with short lead times – two demands rarely met in the highly complex composites materials space. With a 16,000 square foot facility in Puyallup, Washington, Pacific Coast Composites serves thousands of customers with nearly 400 in-stock and made-to-order products from 20 different suppliers representing 15 product categories: adhesives, bagging materials, pre-pregs, resins, honeycomb core, and more. The company’s mission is to provide an alternative to high-cost and long lead times commonly associated with the use of advanced composites, focusing on reducing the customers’ cost of business through waste reduction while providing continuous availability of materials that support the manufacturing and repair of advanced composites.

 About CM Equity Partners

CM Equity Partners (CMEP) (www.cmequity.com), based in New York, NY, provides capital to the Federal services and aerospace and defense industries. For over thirty years, CMEP has partnered with management teams to build value in its investment companies by leveraging its long-standing industry knowledge, relationships, operating experience, and its corporate finance, M&A, and private equity expertise. CMEP provides an active and collaborative management approach to its investments, developing long-term strategic plans and supporting re-investment of profits to grow and broaden a company's revenue base and capabilities. CMEP’s investments are structured with flexibility across a broad spectrum of the capital structure, including equity, structured equity, and mezzanine debt.

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Contact Info:
Allison Lombardo, EVP Marketing and Customer Service
GracoRoberts
alombardo@gracoroberts.com
562-333-4702