North American Rescue
Blue Wolf’s relentless focus on becoming aligned with management, building robust organizations, and M&A execution has helped re-energize, grow and diversify North American Rescue.
Blue Wolf’s relentless focus on becoming aligned with management, building robust organizations, and M&A execution has helped re-energize, grow and diversify North American Rescue.
North American Rescue is a leading provider of consumable medical products to military, law enforcement and EMS/first responder markets. Like many U.S. Department of Defense product businesses, North American Rescue’s revenues declined sharply from 2011-2014 as a result of government sequestration and U.S. troop withdrawals from the Middle East. In the midst of this decline, the company experienced management turnover and ceased investing in new products.
In 2013, Blue Wolf developed a strategy to build an industry-leading “soldier systems” platform – i.e. an enterprise whose products are regularly carried, worn or consumed by soldiers. This challenged and fragmented sector was ripe for consolidation and organizational restructurings in the wake of reduced government spending. North American Rescue was the ideal “platform” company given its scale and industry leading products and the opportunity to partner with the company’s original founder to acquire and reinvigorate the company.
Blue Wolf used the transaction to establish a true partnership with management and then provided the resources for the company to build out its executive, sales and product management teams. In addition, Blue Wolf has sourced and executed acquisition opportunities that have diversified and grown the business. In January 2016, North American Rescue closed on the sizeable acquisition of Two Rivers Medical, a leading supplier of consumable medical products to the federal hospital market.
After working closely with management to institutionalize the organization and expand the company’s sales team and product catalogue – resulting in an increase in earnings of over 150% in less than four years – Blue Wolf sold North America Rescue to Henry Schein, Inc., the world’s largest provider of health care products and services to office-based dental and medical practitioners. The transaction ensures that North American Rescue is equipped with the resources and capital necessary for accelerated and long-term growth.
North American Rescue’s success demonstrates Blue Wolf’s core strength of investing in middle market defense and health care businesses to create value obscured by complexity. We are proud to have partnered with North American Rescue, a company serving our country’s national interests on and off the battlefield, to achieve considerable growth and set the course for long-term success.