07/01/2024
Copley Equity Partners, a private investment firm focused on growing middle-market companies, has announced a strategic investment in OBR Cooling Towers and its portfolio of companies. Philip Poll, President and Chief Executive Officer of OBR, along with senior members of the OBR management team, have retained majority ownership and will continue to lead the combined business. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Founded in 1994, OBR is a leading provider of mission-critical cooling tower services, including repair and rebuild, maintenance and inspection, and new tower installation across the U.S. Headquartered in Northwood, Ohio, OBR has over 250 employees and serves a variety of end markets from its eight offices. These markets include semiconductor, data centers, water/wastewater, food and agriculture, power generation, commercial, healthcare, petrochemical and refinery sectors.
Philip Poll, CEO of OBR, said, “We are very excited to partner with Copley, which has deep experience successfully growing and supporting middle-market companies. Our core values have guided OBR since my father, Peter Poll, founded the business in 1994, and Copley aligns well with those principles. As we continue to focus on executing acquisitions, we welcome a deal and sourcing team from Copley that, like OBR, has in-house expertise in their respective trades.”
Vice President of Copley Equity, Sean Sullivan, said, “We are excited to partner with OBR and help them continue to execute their acquisition strategies. We aim to create a leading, vertically integrated cooling tower maintenance, repair and rebuild service provider with deep expertise in high downtime cost industries, including semiconductor, manufacturing, education, food and beverage, data centers, energy and other industrial and commercial end markets. Copley looks forward to working with the OBR management team to invest in industry-leading talent, optimize operational processes and expand service offerings and geographic footprint both organically and inorganically.”
To support OBR's growth strategy, Copley investment team members Sean Sullivan and Sam Lampert will join the OBR board of directors and serve as board observers.
About OBR Cooling Towers
Based in Northwood, Ohio, OBR Cooling Towers is a leading provider of mission-critical cooling tower services. OBR serves a wide variety of blue-chip clients throughout the United States across a broad set of industrial and commercial end markets where the cost of downtime is high. For more information, visit http://www.obrcoolingtowers.com.
About Copley Equity Partners
Established in 2012, Copley is a private investment firm with offices in Boston and Denver. Copley focuses on partnering with growing, lower-middle-market private companies. The firm invests out of an evergreen, single-family office capital base and is comfortable in both majority and minority ownership positions. For more information, visit http://www.copleyequity.com.
