QualSpec Group
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QualSpec Group

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About

Company:

QualSpec Group is a full service provider of mechanical integrity and advanced non-destructive testing services for the refining, petrochemical, chemical, power generation, gas production and renewable energy industries. The company, headquartered in Houston, TX, generates revenue from recurring on-stream maintenance services as well as turnaround inspection services.

Background:

Altech Inspection, Inc., located in Corpus Christi, TX, was a regional player in a consolidating industry when the company’s CEO chose to partner with Clearview to diversify his net worth and provide capital and advice to expand beyond the company’s gulf coastservice area. Clearview recognized the opportunity to build a national player to meet the demand from large customers for a full service, highly professional inspection provider. The company subsequently acquired IESCO, TC Inspection and Hawk Rope Access, providing liquidity and an ownership stake to the founders of those businesses while creating QualSpec Group, a combined firm with national reach.

Investment Date: October 2008
Investment Status: Exited July 2015
Fund Equity Invested: $25.7 million
Process Type: Limited Process sourced by Lawrence Simon
Portfolio Team: Calvin A. Neider, William F. Case, Jr., Paul M. Caliento, Matthew W. Blevins, Brent A. Simon
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Post Acquisitions Initiatives

Leadership Integration:

  • Replaced the retiring founders of Altech, IESCO and TC Inspection with a Chief Executive Officer, who had previously served as Senior Vice President of IESCO for more than ten years. Clearview supported his aggressive growth vision for the business.
  • Reorganized the reporting structure, placing the best internal talent from each of the four entities into appropriate roles.

Management Augmentation:

  • Recruited a talented CFO with private equity and operational experience to supplement the leadership team.
  • Added experienced supervisory leadership to better serve key customers and ensure that QualSpec was delivering its full service offering to all of its customers

Operational Improvements:

  • Implemented an ERP system across the entire organization allowing management to run the business by metrics at the customer, location, employee, and service line levels.
  • Improved the key safety metric Total Recordable Incidence Rating to the highest industry standards.
  • Created the best billing platform in the industry.
  • Rebranded the entire company as QualSpec Group, eliminating the legacy company names and presenting the business to the market as a single, best in class operator in the mechanical integrity space.

Organic Growth:

  • Achieved strong organic growth from existing core clients, by expanding services at most major clients, by taking share and by adding additional service lines.
  • Regularly added to the recurring on-stream client base.

Acquisition Growth:

  • Completed and integrated three regional add-on acquisitions to create a professional, national player.

Operating Results

Revenues and EBITDA more than tripled in five years and the Company became the second largest privately held integrity management player in the market.

Outcomes

QualSpec Group was sold to a strategic buyer in July 2015.

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