Bertram Capital Secures New Industrial Platform with Investment in BCI Burke

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Dec 15, 2021, 08:01 ET

FOSTER CITY, Calif., Dec. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bertram Capital ("Bertram") announced today the acquisition of Fond du Lac, WI-based BCI Burke ("Burke" or the "Company"), a manufacturer of commercial play equipment. Burke represents the sixth investment completed in Bertram's fourth fund. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"Burke has established itself as a category leader in premium, single-brand commercial play equipment," said Kevin Yamashita, Partner at Bertram Capital. "The Company's successes reflect their innovative product offering and best-in-class customer support, as well as their targeted go-to-market strategy in the U.S. and internationally. We recognized a strong cultural fit during the sale process and are honored to partner with Mike Phelan and the Burke team in their next chapter."

Burke is a fast-ascending brand in the commercial play and recreation solutions market with a broad product offering that challenges everyone to get outside and provides critical infrastructure to communities. The Company has a strong channel, with representative firms around the world that promote Burke's brand and align with its mission. More than 100 years as an industry leader, positions Burke well for growth in its core product categories. Partnering with Bertram to leverage the firm's established buy and build value creation strategy, Burke will also focus on further growth via add-on acquisitions, geographic expansion, and new product introductions.

"The Burke team is thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Bertram Capital and accelerate our momentum in the outdoor recreation market," said Mike Phelan, Chief Executive Officer. "The Bertram team differentiated themselves in the sale process through their clear understanding of our business model and go-to-market strategy, shared vision for Burke's future, and their Bertram Labs resource. We look forward to working with Bertram as we continue to deliver on our mission of bringing play to communities around the world."

Bertram would like to recognize the investment banking team at BlackArch Partners for their efforts in closing this transaction and making this partnership possible.

About BCI Burke

Burke is a leading provider of commercial play and outdoor recreation solutions for public parks, educational institutions, early childcare centers, and commercial developments. The Company specializes in play systems and provides a wide array of other playground and recreation necessities, including outdoor musical instruments, safety surfacing, outdoor fitness products, and site amenities. Burke's advanced modular play systems can be configured and customized in a myriad of ways with colors, designs and different levels of challenge. The Company's products are not only for physical movement; they ignite cognitive, social, emotional, and imaginative skill development in children of all abilities. With locations in the United States and United Kingdom, Burke is well positioned to deliver on its mission to bring play to communities around the world. They seek to help children develop, strengthen families and communities, and keep people of all ages moving outside together. For more information, please visit www.bciburke.com .

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 over $2.2B of 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.