December 21, 2021 – Greenville, SC – Sunny River Management (“SRM”), a family-backed private investment firm, is pleased to announce its partnership with Palmetto Air & Water Balance (“Palmetto”). Palmetto is a leading provider of HVAC testing, adjusting, and balancing services to commercial clients across the Southeastern United States.
Founded by Penny Hinton in 1989 and headquartered in Greenville, SC with ten offices throughout the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic, Palmetto serves a diverse customer base of building owners, property managers, and contractors. The company’s clients consist of hospital and healthcare facilities, education systems, governmental institutions, commercial buildings, and other customers with complex mechanical systems where proper balancing is mission critical. Via its partnership with SRM, Palmetto will maintain its high level of customer service and focus on customer needs while adding resources to grow with both new and existing accounts.
“We are delighted to welcome Palmetto to the SRM family,” said John Cote, Managing Partner at SRM. “Penny and Rodney have built a true industry leader in the test, adjust, and balance space over the past 32 years. Proper ventilation in commercial buildings is more top-of-mind than ever, and Palmetto is well-positioned to capitalize on this increased focus on safe and efficient indoor environments.”
In conjunction with the partnership, Rodney Hinton will become CEO, Penny Hinton will remain in her current role as President, and Alan Tew will remain in his current role as Regional Director. Penny Hinton said of choosing a partner, “Early this year, we began a search for a partner that would embrace our core values of integrity, respect, professionalism, teamwork, and excellence that could also provide a complementary skillset focused on continued growth and opportunities. We believe we found that partner in SRM. SRM brings a wealth of experience in growing companies both internally and through acquisition, and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with them to grow Palmetto to even greater heights.”
SRM plans to accelerate growth at Palmetto by actively seeking other best-in-class industry participants to acquire while also continuing the company’s long history of successful greenfield expansion in high-growth markets.
“The growth opportunities at Palmetto are significant and compelling,” said Jack Partain, Vice President at SRM. “We are excited to pair strong industry tailwinds with strategic M&A and de novo expansion to create the best test, adjust, and balance platform in the country. We could not imagine better leaders to partner with on this mission than Rodney, Penny, Alan, and the amazing team at Palmetto.”
Business Acquisition & Merger Associates acted as financial advisor to Palmetto and Merline & Meacham served as legal counsel. SRM was represented by Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough. Financing was provided by Deerpath Capital Management.
About Sunny River Management, LLC
SRM is a private investment firm focused on building great mid-sized businesses in a few select highly desirable industries. SRM builds its platform businesses through partnering with small businesses and investing in growth within those businesses as part of a larger platform. To learn more about SRM, visit www.sunnyrivermanagement.com.