One Equity Partners Completes Simultaneous Acquisitions and Merger of USNR and Wood Fiber Group

Transformational combination creates integrated supplier of wood processing technology, equipment, aftermarket parts & consumables

NEW YORK – One Equity Partners (“OEP”), a middle market private equity firm, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of USNR, the world’s most comprehensive supplier of equipment and technologies for the wood processing industry, and Wood Fiber Group, a leading manufacturer and supplier of sawmill consumables, parts, and services. OEP subsequently merged the two businesses to a frontrunner for wood processing equipment and aftermarket parts & consumables, with projected 2021 revenues greater than $500 million. Financial terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.

“This investment in USNR and Wood Fiber Group is a perfect example of One Equity Partners’ ability to identify and execute transformational combinations,” said JB Cherry, Senior Managing Director, OEP. “Combining these two great companies that are headquartered seven miles apart with a long history of collaboration and complementary customer bases, is a natural next step to drive value for the businesses and their customers.”

“The combined company’s scale, technical capacity and global reach provide an ideal platform to benefit from long-term global trends in wood demand and process automation,” Cherry added. “In addition, bringing the two top management teams in the industry together makes the company the acquirer of choice as consolidation of the highly fragmented industry continues and worldwide competition intensifies. We look forward to a productive collaboration with the teams on finding new avenues for growth and building on the companies’ past success.”

Headquartered in Woodland, Wash., USNR provides comprehensive automation and technology system integration for mills—from log yards all the way through finishing equipment. The company boasts the largest global installed base of wood processing equipment, serving more than 1,800 customers operating 2,500 mill sites in 56 countries around the world.

Ridgefield, Wash.-based Wood Fiber Products acts as a “one-stop shop” provider of leading timber mill products under brands including Simonds International, Burton Saw & Supply, BGR Saws, Cut Technologies, Global Tooling, U.S. Blades, Armstrong Manufacturing, and Wright Machine Tool. The company has 12 facilities across all the major North American wood processing regions.

“We at USNR are so excited to come together with One Equity Partners and our great friends at Wood Fiber Products,” said Dale Brown, CEO of USNR. “OEP’s ambitious vision to combine these two enterprises and its established track record of successful investments in industrial companies immediately made the firm a preferred partner as we evaluated pathways to continued growth.”

“We’re confident this merger will benefit customers of both USNR and Wood Fiber Group and enable us to collectively reach our full potential when it comes to service and innovation as we continue meeting the strong demand for lumber processing technology and mission-critical aftermarket parts and supplies,” added Craig Tompkins, CEO of Wood Fiber Group.

About One Equity Partners

One Equity Partners (“OEP”) is a middle market private equity firm focused on the industrial, healthcare, and technology sectors in North America and Europe. The firm builds market-leading companies by identifying and executing transformative business combinations. OEP is a trusted partner with a differentiated investment process, a broad and senior team, and an established track record generating long-term value for its partners. Since 2001, the firm has completed more than 300 transactions worldwide. OEP, founded in 2001, spun out of JP Morgan in 2015. The firm has offices in New York, Chicago, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. For more information, please visit www.oneequity.com.

About USNR

USNR operates four large manufacturing plants in the United States, Canada, and Sweden, in addition to more than a dozen regional engineering, service, and sales offices in North America and across Europe. USNR is best known around the world for providing end-to-end solutions for sawmills and planer mills, including log lines, curve sawing gangs, edger lines, trim-sort-stack systems, dry kilns, and the optimization and control technologies that maximize the output and performance of that equipment. USNR is also known around the world for its products used in the manufacture of plywood and other panel products. You can learn more about USNR and its product line at www.usnr.com.

About Wood Fiber Group

Wood Fiber Group was formed in January 2018 with the merger of Simonds International and Burton Saw and Supply. The company is the leading provider of cutting tools, consumable supplies and tool maintenance equipment for the North American sawmill market and other wood fiber processing market segments. The company origins date back to 1832 and has a long track record of organic growth and acquisitions in the wood fiber market. See more at www.woodfibergroup.com.