Location :  Home  >  News  >  News

[Livonia, Mo.] Transom Capital Group (“Transom announced the acquisition of Virginia Tile Company, LLC (“Virginia Tile”). Virginia Tile will be joining forces with Galleher, LLC (“Galleher”) to create a leading flooring and tile products distributor of national scale with unique product development, merchandising and fulfillment capabilities. This milestone marks a significant change in the landscape of the domestic flooring distribution market.

Both companies sell to the professional consumer, including flooring contractors, dealers & showrooms, commercial installers, builders, designers & architects and other customers. Together, the two companies have greater geographic reach and will provide customers with complementary products and additional resources to solve complex problems, according to the company. The combination of these two distributors will benefit their suppliers, customers and employees, while maintaining attention to detail, ingenuity and values their reputations have each been built on. By combining these [centennial] companies, Transom will be able to leverage industry leading manufacturer partnerships and collaborative teams poised for future expansion.

The combined company will be led by Sunil Palakodati as CEO (Sunil will also remain president of Virginia Tile), Rick Coates as president of Galleher and David Burke as CFO. Sunil brings 22 years of building products industry experience, including four years as CEO of Architectural Surfaces Group. David was most recently CFO of Skybridge Technologies and has more than 20 years of experience in finance and accounting, including 10 as a CFO. With the acquisition of Virginia Tile, Transom Capital will exercise its operational knowledge and expertise to integrate the two companies. Transom will work alongside management to drive growth across geographies, new product introductions and market expansion.

“Virginia Tile has an impressive history and reputation with its customers and suppliers and is a trusted solutions provider for builders and contractors across the Midwest,” said Russ Roenick, managing partner at Transom. “We look forward to collaborating with management to integrate and cross-pollinate best practices among these two leading specialty distributors to create an asset of unique scale and national reach.”

Steve Kim, principal at Transom said, "We are excited to build on Galleher’s momentum through the combination with Virginia Tile, which unlocks an expanded geographic reach, a broader product portfolio and greater service capabilities."

Together, Galleher and Virginia Tile will operate as an independent entity within Transom's portfolio of companies. The acquisition will provide additional leadership and expertise, financial backing to accelerate product innovation, new market expansion,and stronger customer relationships, according to the company.

Sunil Palakodati, CEO said, “I am privileged to facilitate the joining of two great companies that share a passion for providing customers with technical solutions, partnering with industry leading manufacturers and building collaborative teams offering high touch local sales support. With Transom’s support and investment, we can accelerate our capabilities.”

Rick Coates, President of Galleher said, “We are confident that the merging of these two companies will provide our customers access to greater resources while offering the same attention to detail and ingenuity in providing unique solutions to challenging customer problems. We also believe that the merger of the two companies will provide our employees access to greater resources and opportunities to serve customers even more effectively, while also creating new and exciting opportunities for personal development and advancement.”

PNC Bank and Blue Torch Capital provided debt financing for the transaction. Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to Virginia Tile.