Clearlake Completes Exit of its Investment in Janus International

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Jan 18, 2024, 07:00 ET

Under Clearlake's ownership, Janus more than doubled EBITDA and executed on numerous initiatives under Clearlake's O.P.S.^® value creation playbook

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. ("Clearlake" or "the Firm"), an investment firm focused on the industrials, technology, and consumer sectors, today announced that the Firm sold its remaining shares of Janus International Group, Inc. (NYSE: JBI) ("Janus" or the "Company") and fully exited its investment in December.

Janus is a global manufacturer and supplier of turn-key building solutions and access control technologies for the self-storage, commercial, and industrial sectors. Clearlake acquired Janus in February 2018 in partnership with the founding management team and remained its largest shareholder when Janus listed on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2021. Under Clearlake's ownership, the Company executed several initiatives, including but not limited to the development of new access control technologies and the purchase and integration of seven acquisitions.

"We believe the growth and strategic transformation executed at Janus in partnership with management is a compelling story," said José E. Feliciano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and Colin Leonard, Partner, at Clearlake. "Our thesis to partner with Janus was centered around the Company's market position, value proposition, margins, and free cash flow, as well as the potential we saw for both organic and inorganic growth. Together with management, we achieved over 140% EBITDA growth and made investments to transition the business to a public company. Clearlake is proud to have partnered with CEO Ramey Jackson and his management team and looks forward to following the Company's future successes."

Ramey Jackson, Chief Executive Officer of Janus, said: "We are proud of the partnership with Clearlake and the experience and resources they dedicated to our business over the years. It has been an absolute pleasure working alongside their team to build Janus into the industrial technology platform it is today."

"Janus is an example of our O.P.S.^® (Operations, People, and Strategy) value creation framework in action," added Nate Mejías, Principal at Clearlake. "In a few short years, Ramey and his team executed an effective buy-and-build playbook, bolstered the management team, diversified the business, grew internationally, and led the adoption of additional technologies within the category."

These organic and inorganic initiatives were centered on the goal of building a leading global provider of building solutions and related technologies for the self-storage, commercial, and industrial markets. Organic growth initiatives included developing Janus's recurring Restore, Rebuild, and Replace ("R3") revenue profile, increasing the company's addressable market by expanding within the commercial and industrial segments, growing locations and sales internationally, vertically integrating certain elements of the business to capture margin opportunities, driving operational efficiencies through procurement, plant investments and lean manufacturing initiatives, and making investments behind Janus's people and customers.

Utilizing Clearlake's experience in software and technology to develop new content for the self-storage ecosystem, Janus developed proprietary access control technologies now sold under the Nokē brand. Inorganically, Janus closed seven strategic add-ons and developed an integration framework, including the acquisitions of DBCI, Nokē, and Betco, among others.

Today, Janus serves a global customer base with over 10,000 active customers worldwide through a value proposition centered around the manufacturing of customized built-to-order products, supported by value-added design, comprehensive installation services, and the development of technologies and content.

About Clearlake
Founded in 2006, Clearlake is an investment firm operating integrated businesses across private equity, credit, and other related strategies. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with experienced management teams by providing patient, long term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake's operational improvement approach, O.P.S.^® The firm's core target sectors are technology, industrials, and consumer. Clearlake currently has over $70 billion of assets under management, and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 400 investments. The firm is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA with affiliates in Dallas, TX, London, UK, Dublin, Ireland, and Singapore. More information is available at www.clearlake.com.