Houlihan Lokey Advises Wynnchurch Capital

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Wynnchurch Capital, LP (Wynnchurch) has acquired Handgards. Houlihan Lokey served as the buyside financial advisor to Wynnchurch.

Houlihan Lokey’s Specialty Distribution team has earned a reputation for working with premier specialty distributors and suppliers, providing superior client service, and delivering outstanding results. This transaction highlights our deep sector expertise and continued success advising leading buyers and sellers in the value-added distribution space, including our ability to deliver significant value to sophisticated private equity clients on the buyside.

Wynnchurch, headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois, with an affiliate in Canada, was founded in 1999 and is a leading middle-market private equity investment firm. Wynnchurch’s strategy is to partner with middle-market companies in the United States and Canada that possess the potential for substantial growth and profit improvement. Wynnchurch manages a number of private equity funds with $9.2 billion of regulatory assets under management and specializes in recapitalizations, growth capital, management buyouts, corporate carve-outs, and restructurings.

Handgards, headquartered in El Paso, Texas, is a leading distributor of foodservice products, including disposable gloves, reclosable bags, tabletop items, expendables, and other carryout products. In the past two years, Handgards acquired two companies, Fineline Settings and Emi Yoshi, and has successfully integrated these two businesses. The company operates eight facilities with more than one million square feet of space and ships over 18 million cases of product annually.