Carousel Capital (“Carousel”) announced today that it has partnered with brothers David and Steve Upton, who will remain significant continuing owners, to recapitalize CraneWorks / RentalWorks (“CraneWorks” or the “Company”). CraneWorks is a Birmingham, Alabama–headquartered provider of operated crane services, crane rental services, and other related equipment rental solutions.
Founded and led by David Upton, CraneWorks has established a reputation for safe, reliable service and best-in-class equipment quality. Within the large and growing equipment rental services market, the Company’s attractive Southeastern geographic footprint and its differentiated service model position CraneWorks for accelerated, sustainable growth.
“We’ve always taken immense pride in the relationships we’ve built with our customers and our team and that will never change,” said David Upton, President of CraneWorks. “Partnering with Carousel provides us with the capital and strategic support to expand our fleet, deepen our service offerings, and reinforce the CraneWorks culture of quality and safety. This partnership will allow us to service our customers like never before.”
Steve Upton, Vice President, added, “This recapitalization ensures continuity for our customers and employees while giving us the flexibility to execute on new growth initiatives. We’re excited to work alongside Carousel to accelerate the Company’s trajectory. David and I have never been more excited about the future of CraneWorks and our continuing ownership.”
“CraneWorks stands out in a fragmented market thanks to its unwavering commitment to service excellence and its strong regional presence in key markets with strong demographic tailwinds. We view CraneWorks as a high value, high service organization like so many other service-based businesses in which we’ve invested and we thank David and Steve for trusting us as their partners,” said Jason Schmidly, Managing Partner of Carousel. “We’re thrilled to join forces with David, Steve, and the entire CraneWorks team to support their next phase of expansion and deliver outstanding value to customers and stakeholders.”
This transaction continues Carousel’s longstanding focus on partnering with founder-led businesses in the Southeastern United States. The recapitalization was funded with equity from Carousel’s sixth fund. Senior debt financing was provided by PNC Bank, Truist Financial, and Pinnacle Financial Partners. K&L Gates served as legal advisor and TM Capital served as financial advisor to Carousel. Maynard Nexsen served as legal advisor to CraneWorks.
