Bertram Capital Completes Sale of Enthusiast Auto Holdings to Cortec Group

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Jan 09, 2020, 15:13 ET

FOSTER CITY, Calif., Jan. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bertram Capital ("Bertram") announced today the completion of the sale of Enthusiast Auto Holdings, LLC ("EAH" or the "Company") to an affiliate of Cortec Group ("Cortec"). EAH is a direct-to-enthusiast, digitally native platform that invests in and helps operate several of the most innovative brands in the performance automotive industry. This transaction represents Bertram's 14th exit since the firm's launch in 2006. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"Our investment in EAH demonstrates Bertram's expertise in building market-leading companies and driving significant growth by applying our Bertram High-5^SM value creation strategy and leveraging our in-house IT team, Bertram Labs," said Jeff Drazan, Managing Partner of Bertram Capital. "I would like to specifically recognize Bertram's Consumer Team, led by Ryan Craig and Tom Beerle, and the Bertram Labs team, led by Jeremy Leng, for their vision and work that resulted in the successful sale of EAH."

Built by enthusiasts and for enthusiasts, EAH has grown from a family-owned Volkswagen repair shop in Wadsworth, Ohio into one of largest specialty e-commerce companies in the automotive aftermarket industry. EAH designs, produces, and sells proprietary parts and kits for a rapidly growing number of automotive makes and models, and it partners with hundreds of other performance brands to bring the enthusiast community an unparalleled customer experience. Over one million enthusiasts follow EAH's banners on social media.

"By partnering with outstanding founders, building a world class management team, and demonstrating the ability of EAH to grow far beyond its early Audi & Volkswagen roots, we created an e-commerce market leader with clear differentiation and exceptional customer satisfaction measures," said Ryan Craig, Partner at Bertram Capital. "I would like to express our sincere gratitude to Imran Jooma, who joined the company as CEO just over two years ago, and deftly guided EAH to its best performance ever. Imran's leadership and expertise were instrumental in helping us grow revenue nearly 4x and expand EBITDA almost 5x between our initial investment and the sale."

Bertram would like to further recognize the investment banking team at BB&T, led by Ryan Mitchell, who managed the transaction process on behalf of EAH.

"Bertram's vision and operational support, particularly with its Bertram Labs team, helped us transform EAH," said EAH CEO Imran Jooma. "Their patience and unwavering commitment to the business have put us in a position to expand our enthusiast scope and continue our rapid growth over the years to come."

About Bertram Capital

Bertram Capital is a private equity firm targeting investments in lower middle market companies. Since its inception in 2006, the firm has raised funds in excess of $1.4B in capital commitments. In addition to supplying strategic growth capital, Bertram Capital leverages proprietary processes and services, Bertram High-5^SM and Bertram Labs, to empower its portfolio companies to unlock their full business potential. The Bertram High-5^SM is an operationally-focused value creation strategy, which includes management augmentation, operational initiative implementation, complementary business acquisition, sales and marketing improvements, and leveraging technology and IP. The cornerstone of this strategy is Bertram Labs, its in-house technology team, which drives growth and value through digital marketing, e-commerce, big data and analytics, application development, and internal and external platform optimization. Visit www.bcap.com for more information.

SOURCE Bertram Capital