Houlihan Lokey Advises FlexXray (2)

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that FlexXray LLC, portfolio company of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners LLC (LLCP), has received a significant growth investment from Warburg Pincus LLC and Tilia Holdings LLC (Tilia). The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

FlexXray is the leading provider of X-ray inspection services focused exclusively on food safety. FlexXray assists leading food manufacturers with regulatory compliance and food safety issues by identifying and removing foreign contaminants from food. Hundreds of manufacturing plants in North America rely on FlexXray’s industry-leading expertise and customer service to salvage valuable products when contamination events occur in the normal course of the food manufacturing process. FlexXray was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Arlington, Texas.

“FlexXray provides a best-in-class solution to protect customer brands, retailer relationships, and, most importantly, consumer health and safety. This investment represents a significant opportunity to grow the business while creating important environmental benefits for our customers by reducing food waste. We believe that Warburg Pincus and Tilia are the ideal partners to support us in our next chapter and look forward to leveraging their global network and broad resources in the food safety space,” said Randy Jesberg, CEO, FlexXray. “I would also like to thank Levine Leichtman Capital Partners for their close partnership, invaluable contribution, and strategic insight over the past four years.”

Warburg Pincus is a leading investor in food safety and food supply chain services, with current and historical investments in Certified Laboratories, Hygiena, GA Foods, SPINs, Aramark, Grubhub/Seamless, Duravant, and Trimark. Tilia is also a leading investor in the food and nutrition supply chain with current investments in Refrig-It, Certified Laboratories, Universal Pure, Proven Partners Group, Ellison Bakery, NutriScience Innovations, and Wheat Montana and historical investment in Safe Foods International Holdings.

“With the increased compliance through USDA and FDA regulations and focus on minimizing food waste, FlexXray is experiencing rapid market adoption and has significant growth opportunities ahead. The company’s mission-critical services, ensuring food product safety, is backed by an incredible management team and strong customer service,” said Stephanie Geveda, Managing Director, Head of Business Services, Warburg Pincus. “We are excited to partner with Randy and the FlexXray team, alongside Tilia, to build upon FlexXray’s history of success to enhance and expand their offerings in this dynamic and growing market,” said Michael Pan, Principal, Warburg Pincus.

“FlexXray is well-positioned to meet the growing consumer demand for a safe and environmentally-friendly food supply chain. The investment in FlexXray reflects our ongoing mission to invest in companies that help make the food supply chain safer for our customers and, ultimately, the end consumer,” said Johannes Burlin, Co-CEO, Tilia. “We are excited to partner with Warburg Pincus to bring this investment to life and extend the growth trajectory for the company.”

With locations in Texas, Illinois, and Connecticut, FlexXray is the leading X-ray inspection and recovery service for the food industry. FlexXray’s advanced X-ray machines and unique process can detect metal, glass particles, stone, bone, plastic, rubber gasket material, product clumps, container defects, wood, and missing components down to 0.8 mm and smaller. With USDA- and FDA-registered inspection facilities, FlexXray has the solutions food processors and manufacturers need to keep your product—and your customers—safe.

Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. The firm has more than $60 billion in private equity assets under management. The firm’s active portfolio of more than 200 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector, and geography. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 19 private equity funds, which have invested more than $90 billion in over 930 companies in more than 40 countries. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore.

Tilia is a Chicago-based private investment firm focused exclusively on building distinctive middle-market companies that provide outsourced, technical services across the global food and nutrition supply chain. Through an interdisciplinary approach to investing, Tilia partners with companies providing technical business services that support leading and emerging CPG brands. Tilia’s investment team has complementary skills across operations and finance and provides expertise in scaling and growing middle-market companies. Tilia’s deep sector focused strategy is a successful approach to investments that spans almost three decades and approaches each investment as a steward by employing a consistent set of principles to improve capital across four dimensions: brand, human, social and financial.

LLCP is a middle-market private equity firm with a 38-year track record of investing across various targeted sectors, including franchising, professional services, education, and engineered products. LLCP utilizes a differentiated Structured Private Equity investment strategy, combining debt and equity capital investments in portfolio companies. This unique structure provides a less dilutive solution for management teams and entrepreneurs while delivering growth and income with a significantly lower risk profile. Since inception, LLCP has managed approximately $12.1 billion of institutional capital across 15 investment funds and has invested in over 90 portfolio companies. LLCP currently manages $8.5 billion of assets—including its most recent flagship fund, Levine Leichtman Capital Partners VI, L.P., which closed in 2018 with $2.5 billion of committed capital—and has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Charlotte, Miami, London, Stockholm, and The Hague.

Houlihan Lokey served as the lead financial advisor and assisted in marketing, structuring, and negotiating the transaction on behalf of FlexXray and LLCP. This transaction exemplifies the continued preeminence of Houlihan Lokey’s position advising market-leading testing, inspection, certification, and compliance businesses, with dedicated expertise in food safety.