BlackHawk Industrial acquires Specialty Tool
BlackHawk Industrial announced the acquisition of Specialty Tool Inc. of Rock Hill, S.C.
Founded in 1978, Specialty Tool is a distributor of cutting tools and metalworking supplies to the manufacturing sector in the Southeast.
“We believe that the entire team from Specialty Tool, with their technical sales approach, deep local sales talent, and strong leadership is a perfect addition to the BlackHawk family," said Bill Scheller, CEO of BlackHawk Industrial. "Our goal is to integrate Specialty Tool into BlackHawk as soon as possible. Derek Upson, BlackHawk’s VP of Eastern regional sales, and Chris Bignell, BlackHawk’s VP of customer experience, will lead the integration process to begin capitalizing on our aggressive growth plans in the Southeast region.”
Scheller added: “We continue to attract and acquire the best local distributors in a given marketplace to become part of the business we are building in North America. Specialty Tool is the 14th acquisition of 25 different companies by BlackHawk Industrial since the fall of 2010.”
Upson said the acquisition will help BlackHawk further penetrate the Southeast market. "Specialty Tool will be a base of operations for BlackHawk, allowing us to expand rapidly in the Southeast Region. This acquisition is a perfect reflection of our tag line ‘Big Enough to Serve, Small Enough to Care’. Our existing customer and supplier base from across the U.S. have been very supportive of BlackHawk entering this marketplace to further support them,” he said.
Bignell said BlackHawk's goal is to integrate the operations of Specialty Tool within 60 days. "After meeting with the Specialty Team this week, we believe that the strength of the BlackHawk infrastructure will give access to many new tools that make them, as part of BlackHawk, much stronger in the local marketplace. Our entire team in the Eastern region is excited to support the team from Specialty Tool as they become new members of our family,” he said.
Upson added, “Now that BlackHawk has a base of operation in the Southeast Region, we will add more locations and acquisitions in key cities to further expand our operations in the region. We will also attract additional sales and customer service personnel to join our BlackHawk Team.”
INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY MAGAZINE
The March/April issue of Industrial Supply magazine features an in-depth cover story about Joyce Lansdale and Vallen. Plus, we're featuring articles by contributing writers Dirk Beveridge, Frank Hurtte, and David Kahle, as well as interviews with numerous product and distribution industry experts.
