Growing a Corporate Orphan
Mac Bridger and his management team at Collins & Aikman Floorcoverings (“C&A”) had been building a commercial carpet business with a solid market position, superior products and a unique market segmentation sales strategy. As an “orphan” subsidiary of a larger company, however, C&A had not been able to fully capitalize on its available growth opportunities and was essentially treated as a “cash cow” by its corporate parent.

In February 1997, Quad-C acquired C&A from its parent company in partnership with management, and created an option program for key management based on earnings growth and value creation. We supported management’s strategy to build upon the Company’s strength in the education, healthcare and government segments of the commercial carpet market and expand more aggressively into the corporate and retail segments. In addition, we sought to build upon the Company’s domestic presence with selective expansion into international markets.

Two Acquisitions and International Expansion
Prior to our acquisition, C&A only had operations in Dalton, GA – known as the “Carpet Capital” because of the number of carpet companies based there. However, following the acquisition, the Company significantly expanded its core business. C&A stepped up development of its market-segmented sales force, and in 1998, completed a joint venture in Asia and acquired an operation in the U.K. to expand its international presence. In 1999, C&A completed two highly strategic acquisitions, Monterey Carpets and Crossley Carpets, which substantially broadened its product offering, added two quality brands to the C&A family, grew its share of the corporate segment and provided access to new end-markets and geographic locales, including Canada. All of the above development activities were financed with cost-effective, tax-deductible debt capital, as a result of the Company’s strong performance and Quad-C’s relationships with the lending community.