R-O-M Corporation and Specialty Manufacturing (SMI) announce combination

R-O-M Corporation and Specialty Manufacturing (SMI) announced today that they will combine under new ownership with The Sterling Group, of Houston, Texas. Both companies are leading suppliers for specialty vehicle safety components.

The Sterling Group is focused on operational excellence and will help R-O-M and SMI continue to improve their organizations, providing better service and products to their customers. Sterling plans to
continue the efforts and successes both companies experienced while operating as portfolio companies of Century Park Capital Partners. The combination of R-O-M and SMI gives the new organization increased size and resources.

“R-O-M and SMI offered a powerful combination of market leading businesses that consistently and reliably provided safety-related equipment to fleets in their respective industries for a collective 88 years,” said Gary Rosenthal, partner at The Sterling Group. “The combination of these two businesses allows us to draw on the strengths of the two legacy organizations. Sterling will work closely with management to further improve operations and take advantage of numerous strategic and acquisition-related opportunities.”

“We are pleased to partner with Sterling to bring our companies together,” said Jeff Hupke, newly appointed president of the combined company. “We look forward to deepening our product offerings and expanding our ability to serve our customers.”

Joe Uebbing, newly appointed CEO of the combined company and former CEO of SMI added, “We are very excited to be part of the Sterling family. Their management team has a tremendous amount of operational and management experience that will enable Jeff and me to work with our teams to grow the business and be a better partner to our customers.”

As part of the announcement, both companies will continue operating and marketing the R-O-M and SMI brands. Primary points of contact at each company remain unchanged.