ProMach Expands Aftermarket Footprint with American Holt Acquisition from Arcline

The packaging equipment industry's consolidation wave accelerated Thursday as ProMach announced the acquisition of American Holt and Pride Engineering from Arcline Investment Management, marking the latest move in ProMach's aggressive buy-and-build strategy. The transaction, which closed January 9, 2026, adds three complementary aftermarket parts businesses to ProMach's portfolio and significantly expands the company's ability to serve customers throughout the equipment lifecycle.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. BMO Capital Markets served as financial advisor to Arcline, with Ropes & Gray LLP and Fredrikson & Byron P.A. providing legal counsel.

The acquisition represents a calculated bet on the lucrative aftermarket parts and consumables segment of the packaging equipment industry. While original equipment manufacturers traditionally focus on selling new machinery, the real profit engine often lies in the ongoing stream of replacement parts, consumables, and lifecycle services that customers require to maintain production uptime.

American Holt and Pride Engineering—collectively known as AmHolt—have built their business model around this fundamental insight. With facilities in Massachusetts, Quebec, and Minnesota, the platform provides engineered aftermarket parts and consumables to the food and beverage packaging and processing markets. Through what the company describes as a relentless focus on solving customer pain-points with superior customer service and high ROI, up-engineered products, AmHolt has established itself as a preferred vendor for mission-critical replacement parts.

"Their addition to our business continues the expansion of our product solutions portfolio, and it significantly expands our ability to serve our customers throughout the lifecycle of their equipment," said Mark Anderson, President and CEO of ProMach, in a statement announcing the transaction.

The strategic logic is straightforward: by combining ProMach's extensive installed base of packaging equipment with AmHolt's aftermarket expertise, the combined entity can capture a larger share of customer wallet over the decades-long lifespan of industrial packaging machinery. It's a playbook that has proven successful across industrial sectors, from aerospace to medical devices, where aftermarket revenues often generate higher margins and more predictable cash flows than equipment sales.

The AmHolt platform that ProMach is acquiring actually consists of three distinct businesses, each serving different segments of the food and beverage packaging aftermarket. This multi-brand structure reflects Arcline's own buy-and-build strategy during its ownership period.

American Holt, based in Norwood, Massachusetts, serves as the core platform. The company provides aftermarket replacement parts for production and processing machinery used across various food and beverage packaging applications. American Holt has built a reputation as a technology-enabled provider focused on delivering high-quality replacement parts that often exceed OEM specifications.

DMA Solution, located in Candiac, Quebec, joined the platform through an October 2023 acquisition. The company specializes in high-performance aftermarket replacement parts for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) packaging machinery, specifically targeting the beverage packaging sector. This acquisition expanded the platform's geographic reach into Canada and deepened its expertise in PET bottle production equipment—a critical segment given the beverage industry's reliance on PET containers.

Pride Engineering, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, brings specialized capabilities in aluminum can manufacturing. The company focuses on equipment critical to the production of 2-piece cans, including bottom formers, over travel monitoring systems, tool packs and precision die grinding machine tools. Arcline acquired Pride in August 2019 as the foundation for building a specialty tooling platform, positioning it to capitalize on the secular shift from single-use plastics to more sustainable aluminum containers.

Together, these three businesses create a comprehensive aftermarket offering that spans multiple packaging formats—from PET bottles to aluminum cans to general food and beverage processing equipment. The geographic diversification across three North American facilities also provides manufacturing redundancy and proximity to key customer clusters.

For Arcline Investment Management, the AmHolt exit represents a successful execution of the firm's "Industrial Compounder" investment thesis. The Nashville-based private equity firm, which manages over $20 billion in assets, seeks to build what it describes as market-leading, non-disruptible industrial platforms designed to consistently grow earnings over decades.

The AmHolt investment exemplifies this approach. Rather than acquiring a single company and optimizing it, Arcline built a multi-company platform through strategic add-on acquisitions. The firm started with Pride Engineering in 2019, added American Holt as a complementary business, and then bolted on DMA Solution in 2023 to expand geographic reach and product capabilities.

"Our partnership with Arcline enabled the AmHolt group of companies to successfully execute on our strategic vision of becoming the preferred vendor for high-quality, mission-critical aftermarket parts and consumables for our customers," said Cliff Gilbert, CEO of AmHolt, in a statement. "We thank our team members, valued customers, and Arcline for the collective success we've achieved and look forward to the next chapter of growth as part of ProMach."

The exit to ProMach also reflects Arcline's recognition that the platform had reached a scale where integration into a larger strategic buyer could unlock additional value. While the AmHolt businesses could continue growing independently, joining ProMach's extensive portfolio provides access to a much larger customer base, cross-selling opportunities, and operational synergies that would be difficult to achieve as a standalone platform.

The AmHolt acquisition fits seamlessly into ProMach's well-established buy-and-build consolidation strategy. The company has completed 33 total acquisitions spanning 6 countries, including 22 in the United States, 3 in Canada, and 3 in Italy, with a focus on Packaging Machinery (14 deals) and Food Processing & Packaging Equipment (3 deals).

The pace of acquisition activity has accelerated dramatically in recent years. After completing 3-4 deals annually from 2019 through 2022, ProMach ramped up to 6-7 acquisitions per year in 2024 and 2025. Notable recent transactions include DJS Systems in May 2025, KelCode Solutions in March 2025, and Dft-Technology in December 2025.

This aggressive M&A strategy reflects the highly fragmented nature of the packaging equipment industry. The sector consists of hundreds of specialized equipment manufacturers, each typically focused on specific packaging formats, end markets, or geographic regions. For a consolidator like ProMach, this fragmentation creates abundant acquisition opportunities to build a comprehensive portfolio that can serve customers across multiple packaging needs.

The strategy also aligns with the preferences of ProMach's private equity ownership. The company has been backed by several PE firms over the years, each pursuing the same basic playbook: acquire a platform, provide capital for add-on acquisitions, build scale and capabilities, and eventually exit to the next buyer at a higher valuation multiple.

The ProMach-AmHolt transaction reflects two powerful trends reshaping the industrial equipment sector: ongoing consolidation and the strategic shift toward lifecycle services and aftermarket revenue.

The packaging equipment industry has been consolidating for decades, driven by several factors. Customers increasingly prefer dealing with fewer, larger suppliers that can provide comprehensive solutions rather than managing relationships with dozens of specialized vendors. Scale advantages in R&D, manufacturing, and service networks favor larger players. And the availability of private equity capital has fueled roll-up strategies across the sector.

ProMach itself is a product of this consolidation wave, having grown from a small platform into a packaging equipment powerhouse through serial acquisitions. The company now operates multiple product brands across various packaging categories, creating a one-stop-shop for food and beverage manufacturers.

The AmHolt acquisition continues this consolidation trend, bringing three previously independent aftermarket parts businesses under ProMach's umbrella. For customers, this consolidation can mean simplified procurement, better service coordination, and potentially more integrated solutions. For competitors, it means facing an increasingly formidable rival with deeper pockets and broader capabilities.

The strategic emphasis on aftermarket parts and lifecycle services reflects a broader shift in industrial equipment business models. Equipment manufacturers have long recognized that the initial equipment sale is just the beginning of a decades-long customer relationship. Over a machine's 20-30 year lifespan, customers will spend multiples of the original purchase price on replacement parts, consumables, maintenance services, and upgrades.

This aftermarket revenue stream offers several advantages over equipment sales. It's more predictable, less cyclical, and typically generates higher profit margins. Once a customer has installed a particular brand of equipment, switching costs create natural customer retention. And as equipment ages, aftermarket spending often increases as parts wear out and require more frequent replacement.

The AmHolt businesses have built their entire value proposition around serving this aftermarket demand. By focusing on high ROI, up-engineered products that often exceed OEM specifications, they've carved out a profitable niche serving customers who prioritize equipment uptime and performance over simply buying the cheapest replacement parts.

For ProMach, acquiring these aftermarket capabilities creates opportunities to monetize its existing installed base more effectively. Rather than selling equipment and hoping customers return for parts, ProMach can now proactively manage the entire equipment lifecycle, from initial sale through decades of aftermarket support.

While the strategic rationale for the acquisition appears sound, ProMach now faces the challenge of successfully integrating three distinct businesses into its existing operations. Integration execution will be critical to realizing the deal's full potential.

The most immediate opportunity lies in cross-selling. ProMach can introduce AmHolt's aftermarket parts and services to its existing customer base, while AmHolt can leverage ProMach's sales force and customer relationships to expand its own reach. The companies' complementary capabilities—ProMach's strength in original equipment and AmHolt's aftermarket expertise—should create natural synergies.

Operational integration will require careful management. The AmHolt businesses have built their reputations on superior customer service and technical expertise. Maintaining that service quality while integrating into a larger organization will be essential to retaining customers and justifying the acquisition premium.

Looking ahead, the combined entity is well-positioned to capitalize on several favorable industry trends. The ongoing shift from plastic to aluminum packaging plays to Pride Engineering's strengths in can manufacturing equipment. Growing demand for sustainable packaging solutions should drive equipment upgrades and replacements. And the food and beverage industry's continued focus on automation and efficiency creates ongoing demand for both new equipment and aftermarket optimization.

The transaction also positions ProMach for potential future strategic options. By building a more comprehensive portfolio spanning equipment sales and lifecycle services, the company becomes a more attractive acquisition target for larger industrial conglomerates or infrastructure investors seeking stable, recurring revenue streams.

The ProMach acquisition of American Holt and Pride Engineering from Arcline represents a textbook example of industrial consolidation in action. A serial acquirer adds complementary capabilities to expand its addressable market. A private equity seller exits a successful platform investment to a strategic buyer. And the resulting combination creates a more comprehensive offering for customers while capturing a larger share of lifecycle equipment spending.

As ProMach continues its aggressive acquisition strategy—the AmHolt deal marks the company's 34th transaction and first of 2026—the packaging equipment industry's consolidation shows no signs of slowing. For the hundreds of smaller, specialized equipment and parts suppliers still operating independently, the message is clear: scale matters, and the industry's future likely belongs to those who can offer comprehensive solutions across the equipment lifecycle.

The AmHolt businesses, recognized for their quality design and manufacture, as well as their ability to partner with consumer packaged goods companies to improve efficiency and uptime, now have the resources and platform to accelerate their growth as part of a much larger organization. Whether that potential translates into actual value creation will depend on ProMach's execution in the months and years ahead.