Succession Capital Partners with Cortec Group to Accelerate Groundworks Growth

New Capital Investor Will Further Enhance Groundworks’ Ability to Evolve Foundation Services Industry

Virginia Beach, VA (Jan 21, 2020) – Succession Capital Partners announced today that it has added a new growth capital partner to portfolio company, Groundworks Companies.

Groundworks®, the nation’s largest foundation services company, added a partnership with the Cortec Group (“Cortec”), a multi-billion-dollar private equity firm focused on investing in and growing entrepreneur-led middle-market specialty consumer services and products companies. Groundworks continues to disrupt the foundation services industry, ushering in 2020 with the announcement of a new growth capital partner to accelerate Groundworks’ organic and acquisitive expansion.

Succession Capital Partners first acquired JES Foundation Repair, the initial brand of Groundworks Companies, in 2016 from the owner and founder who was looking to retire.

Succession invested heavily to expand Groundworks over the past four years, expanding to 13 brands, 23 branches across 11 states. Groundworks has grown to just under a quarter-billion-dollar brand in less than four years. The Company has been named to Inc. 5000 three consecutive years.   

“In late 2019, we began a search for the best partner to assist me in accelerating our mission of evolving the foundation services industry. We wanted a partner who valued our company culture, business model and aligned with our mindset,” said Matt Malone, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Groundworks. “For over 35 years, Cortec has built a track record of helping founders and entrepreneurial management teams build their high-growth companies. They grind just like the men and women of Groundworks, and, most importantly, they value people. We did diligence on numerous potential growth capital partners, but, after speaking with the CEO of the Cortec portfolio company, YETI, I was sold”, concluded Malone.   

“Cortec understands consumer, growth-oriented businesses and entrepreneurial Founders. They will bring massive resources to help us evolve the industry.” 

David Schnadig, Co-President of Cortec, stated: “Since their first acquisition in 2016, Matt Malone and his team have successfully executed their laser-focused strategy to lead the foundation services industry by delivering consistent excellence to the customer throughout the nation. Our meaningful experience working with entrepreneurs, particularly in the consumer services space, helped us quickly understand the uniqueness of Groundworks’ transformational business model and drove our excitement to partner with Matt and his team to facilitate even more rapid future expansion.” Michael Najjar, a Managing Partner at Cortec, added, “In addition to fostering organic growth, Cortec looks forward to supporting Groundworks as it continues to consolidate the industry by executing on its robust pipeline of acquisitions of regional and local foundation services providers.” 
About Succession Capital Partners 
Succession Capital is the only professional buy-out firm headquartered in the Virginia Beach/Norfolk area. Succession focuses on working with family-owned businesses to assist them with the proper succession of their business. The firm invests in operating companies under $50 million in enterprise value and unlike most private equity firms, the partners of Succession Capital run the businesses they acquire day to day.
For more information about Succession Capital Partners please visit www.successioncp.com
Portfolio