Whitley Products, Inc.

Client Profile
With a history of over 60 years, Whitley fabricates precision tubular products serving the diesel engine, agricultural and off highway construction equipment industries. Headquartered in Warsaw, IN, Whitley has manufacturing facilities located in Plymouth, IN and Franklin, NC. With a wide breadth of available products and complex assemblies, Whitley’s precision engineering process and state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities make it one of the leading tubular products suppliers in the U. S.
Situation
Certain key program losses suppressed Whitley’s revenue and profitability and the impact of these losses was exacerbated by an overleveraged balance sheet. Whitley aggressively sought to diversify and expand its customer base to counteract the downturn, but struggled to replace lost revenue and had excess capacity within its manufacturing plants. As a result, Whitley engaged SSG to quickly explore a sale of the Company’s operating assets. During the sale process, a Receiver was appointed under Indiana state law and the sale was effectuated as a State Court Receivership asset sale.
Solution
SSG marketed the Company to a wide range of global strategic and financial parties in a compressed time frame. SSG initiated and negotiated a sale of the Company’s operating assets to Tricorn, a publicly traded company based in the United Kingdom, giving Tricorn a platform in the U.S. to continue its growth in the tubular products market. Publicly listed in 2001, Tricorn Group plc is the holding company for a group of companies that develop and manufacture pipe solutions to a growing and increasingly international customer base.