Wallbank Industrial buys and permanently holds niche manufacturers from owners who care deeply about their company's future who want a PE alternative.
From The Founder
My name is Chris Wallbank, and I lead a third-generation manufacturing business, PJWS. I took over for my dad as CEO close to a decade ago, and in that time, I've maintained the foundation that he built and grew the business from $10M to $50M in revenue.
The business that you or your family started isn't just a company. It represents much of what has defined you and your family for most of your life. The future of the people you've built the business with matters, as does preserving what you've built to ensure yours or your family's legacy not only stays intact but thrives. I know this because I grew up in a business where these were important to us too, and I realized the importance of these points at an even deeper level after taking over leadership responsibility of the business my father founded.
Given my experience leading my father's business, I felt there was an opportunity to take what I learned to support other founder-led or family-owned businesses. I started Wallbank Industrial with the goal of acquiring or investing in business owners who are looking for the right person to be a steward of their business after they are no longer involved, whether that's now or five years from now. To us, being a steward means preserving a reputation that was earned over decades and treating the people with respect who have been such an important part of the organization's success.
Most buyers see numbers on a page, not the lifetime of work behind the numbers. They talk synergies, think short-term returns, trim beyond any fat to the company's bone, and then move on, selling the company and leaving it a shell of its former self for someone else to deal with. That's not us. It never will be. We want to partner and first seek to understand what got you here. We will then endeavor to protect what already works well, support the team that built it, and ideally, take the organization even further. And there will be no planned exit or sale. We expect to buy and hold all companies as far as we can into the future.
Who We Work With
We partner with business owners in one of two situations — or sometimes both.
Owners Struggling with Succession Options
You've thought about selling. Likely because you don't have a strong succession plan and you want the business to succeed far beyond you. You know you need to sell eventually but just haven't been ready to take that next step, or you may actually be ready to sell but none of the potential buyers seem like good options so you've stopped for now.
You may have tried selling before and grew frustrated by the approach or lack of familiarity that PE had with you and your business, and how different they seemed from you. Maybe the trust never developed, which was important to you in your years in business, given your past experiences with PE, experiences others you trust have had with them, or based on PE's reputation of how they do things. Having the company sold again after you've sold it, just 3-5 years from now, is the last thing you want to happen and you cannot just wash your hands of this, leaving the company's long term fate to someone else.
Strategic buyers can be a more comfortable option as they usually understand your industry. Where it gets tricky is if the business in a niche. Do they start to run this business like another division or product line of their existing company, creating bureaucracy and diluting attention away from what made the company successful in the first place? Will they take the time to understand the details, and what makes the company special, and ensure the organization is unemcumbered to operate this way? While it logically makes sense to consider a strategic buyer because of the industry familiarity, you haven't gotten comfortable as it's tough to see how the organization will retain its DNA that has made it successful. You may want to remain involved beyond what they are comfortable with or they want you to become an employee, and that feels incredibly restrictive. Lastly, there spoken or unspoken plans include realizing synergies, and you don't want your company "synergized": facility relocated, positions consolidated, people let go, the company renamed.
Both types of buyers don't get you. They're not relatable or things just don't feel right. So the easiest decision has been to not make a decision — to hold. You don't feel you have a viable option available. That's where we come in.
Owners Who See Growth Opportunities
You see untapped potential in your business but are unsure how to realize it. You've grown the business before, so that's not new, but you feel like you're at an inflection point. This next stage of growth will require a level change that you're unsure of or haven't experienced. You're looking for someone who has done it before who will also allow your organization to remain true to what got it here.
Or maybe you do know how to realize the growth, but you don't want to deal with the challenges you know will come with growth. You have a different risk profile now than you have had in the past. Allocating capital that otherwise would be dividends or taking risk with the business when things are fairly stable after years of hard work jeopardizes today for the potential of a better tomorrow. While you see a lot of growth potential, the personal reward for you doesn't outweigh the risk. This doesn't feel good because much of what has defined your prior success is the willingness to take calculated risk.
Or whether you feel confident about realizing the growth alone or not, it doesn't matter because you actually have a different problem - all of your wealth is tied up in the business and this no longer makes sense for you and your family. Even though you've had your wealth in the business since the beginning and that's worked out well, it's time to utilize that capital for other things or to start to de-risk given where you are in your career, often referred to as "taking chips off the table".
These challenges can only can be addressed if a real solution exists. Selling the business to the right person can be a solution, especially if the odds of long term success are greater because: 1) they will utilize you and your strengths, 2) they will leverage their prior experience with growth in a company like yours, 3) there is alignment with how to manage the business and a focus on the long term, and 4) the opportunity to not only remain involved, but participate in the upside when further success is realized.
But the question to be rightly suspicious of is does such a partner even exist?
Why Our Value Proposition Resonates
If you value what we offer — holding your business in perpetuity so you only need to evaluate me and our team, decision making that consistently prioritizes the long term health of the business, keeping your business operating independently, treating your people with respect, valuing your legacy and your company's legacy — then we should talk.
Making the decision to sell your business is a really big deal. It requires a high degree of alignment and tremendous trust to be built with the buyer. While no two situations are identical, I've been in similar shoes as you as a business owner and operator. I'm a steward of a family business and have demonstrated success as CEO for over a decade, and even longer outside of the CEO role, having grown up in the business. I get that what you've built is more than just a company because I've lived it.
Lastly, your timeline is our timeline. Whether that's now or five years from now. We're not in a rush. We look forward to a conversation, regardless of the stage you are at, when you are ready.
