Wind Point Partners is an American

private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including lev ...

focused on

growth capital Growth capital (also called expansion capital and growth equity) is a type of private equity investment, usually a minority investment, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new mark ...

investments and

leveraged buyouts A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money ( leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loa ...

middle-market companies Authorities provide differing definitions of the middle-market or mid-market companies. While some authorities look to revenue generated by companies to define the middle market, other sources regard either asset size or number of employees as a be ...

. The firm focuses on the following industry sectors: Consumer Products, Industrial Products, and Business Services. Wind Point's strategy involves partnering with executives who typically have run a P&L of $1 billion or greater to acquire businesses with enterprise values between $100 million and $500 million. The firm, which is based in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, was founded in 1984. It was founded and funded by S. Curtis Johnson of Racine Wisconsin, heir to the

SC Johnson S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. (commonly referred to as S. C. Johnson) is an American multinational, privately held manufacturer of household cleaning supplies and other consumer chemicals based in Racine, Wisconsin. In 2017, S. C. Joh ...

fortune.

History

Since its founding, Wind Point has raised approximately $4.0 billion of investor commitments and completed more than 100 investments and 300 add-on acquisitions across its nine private equity funds. The firm began raising their ninth fund in 2019 with a $1.2 billion target. The firm completed fundraising for its eighth fund in 2017 with $985 million of investor commitments. Wind Point's prior funds were raised in 2009 with $915 million of investor commitments and 2005 with $715 million of investor commitments. Since inception, Wind Point acquisitions have included

Pacific Cycle Pacific Cycle, Inc., is an American division of Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings that imports and distributes bicycles. It was founded in 1977 by Chris Hornung. The company pioneered the sourcing of bicycles from the Far East for distribution in ...

(also maker of Schwinn bicycles),

Bushnell Corporation Bushnell Corporation is an American firm that specializes in sporting optics and outdoor products. It is based in Overland Park, Kansas and is a subsidiary of Vista Outdoor. Bushnell's produces binoculars, telescopes, spotting scopes, riflesco ...

, Bakery Chef, Gehl Foods, and Ames True Temper.CASTLE HARLAN TO BUY GARDEN-EQUIPMENT MAKER

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, June 9, 2004

References

Wind Point Partners
Business Week Profile

External links

Wind Point Partners
(company website) Financial services companies established in 1984 Private equity firms of the United States Companies based in Chicago {{US-private-equity-company-stub