Maintenance Equipment Producer U.S. Products Acqui
Coeur d'Alene, ID, December 22, 2006--U.S. Products, a manufacturer of commercial carpet-cleaning equipment, has been sold to a Danish firm--a move that will help the company sustain its rapid growth, officials said, according to the Spokesman Review.
The company makes high-end cleaners, retailing for $1,000 to $6,000 apiece. ServiceMaster, which cleans 10.5 million homes and businesses each year, is one of U.S. Products' customers. Company sales have quadrupled to $12 million in the past eight years, while the work force has nearly tripled. "Every place there's carpet, basically we're there," said Chuck Wilke, U.S. Products' chairman.
U.S. Products had reached the point where it needed additional capital to expand, Wilke said. Company officials also wanted to grow the firm's international sales, which currently account for less than 10 percent of its business.
Wilke and his partner, Doug Hauff, ended up accepting an offer from one of their customers, Nilfisk-Advance Group.
Nilfisk-Advance is a global supplier of floor-cleaning equipment, with annual sales of $940 million. It already buys specialty equipment from U.S. Products, which sells under Nilfisk-Advance's labels.
U.S. Products will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Danish firm, retaining its 40,000-square-foot operations on Aqua Avenue and its 77 employees, including Wilke and Hauff. The sale is expected to close on January 1. Terms were not disclosed.
The backing of an international firm will help U.S. Products expand its sales here and abroad, said Hauff, the company's president and chief executive officer. Nilfisk-Advance has sales companies in 35 countries and manufacturing facilities in four European countries, China, and the United States.
U.S. Products will become the centerpiece of the firm's portable carpet-cleaning equipment business, Hauff said. He expects the Coeur d'Alene work force to expand in the future, though he doesn't have a timeline for hiring.
U.S. Products was founded in California in the late 1970s. The company was the first manufacturing firm enticed to Coeur d'Alene by Jobs Plus, a nonprofit job recruitment agency.
Wilke and Hauff purchased the company in 1998, moving it into a rapid expansion phase. U.S. Products was an industry leader in using hot water and fewer chemicals to clean carpets, Hauff said.
The company also has a "restoration" line of equipment, which restores carpets and hard surfaces to near original condition, he said.
