PrimeSource Brands Closes Tenth Acquisition Under Clearlake, Adding Gate Hardware Specialist to Outdoor Living Arsenal

The specialty building products sector's consolidation wave gained fresh momentum Monday as PrimeSource Brands announced its tenth acquisition since partnering with Clearlake Capital in December 2020, acquiring Deerfield Beach, Florida-based Advantage Industries, a manufacturer of gate and fence hardware solutions with particular strength in pool safety applications.

The transaction, announced January 13, extends PrimeSource's aggressive outdoor living expansion strategy and positions the Irving, Texas-based distributor to capture share in the rapidly growing pool safety equipment market, which is valued at USD 1.3 billion in 2024 and projected to rise to USD 2.5 billion by 2033 at a CAGR of 8.2%.

Financial terms were not disclosed, consistent with PrimeSource's pattern of keeping deal valuations private across its acquisition spree.

The Advantage Industries acquisition represents more than incremental portfolio expansion—it's the capstone of a deliberate strategy to dominate the outdoor living segment through systematic consolidation.

Tom Koos, CEO of PrimeSource Brands, emphasized the strategic fit: "Advantage has built a reputation for quality, innovation and commitment to safety standards in the pool safety and gate hardware market. Their patented portfolio represents a natural extension of our outdoor living strategy."

The deal creates immediate synergies with PrimeSource's existing outdoor living portfolio, which now includes Fortress Railing, RailFX, Ultra-Tec, CityPost, and Keylink. This collection of brands spans the full spectrum of outdoor living hardware—from premium cable railing systems to aluminum products, and now comprehensive gate and fence solutions.

Advantage Industries, operating primarily through its Safetech Hardware brand, brings specialized expertise in self-closing gate hinges, pool safety latches, heavy-duty hardware, and decorative accessories serving residential, commercial, and institutional applications. With more than thirty years of industry experience, the company has established deep relationships with distributors, contractors, and pool builders—channels that align perfectly with PrimeSource's existing go-to-market infrastructure.

The pool safety hardware segment offers particularly attractive economics. Stringent municipal codes and liability concerns drive consistent demand, while product specifications often require certified solutions that command premium pricing. Advantage's portfolio addresses these requirements with products designed to meet safety codes while providing ease of installation and durability.

The market dynamics support aggressive investment in this category:

The forecasted CAGR of 8.2% from 2026 to 2033 significantly outpaces general economic growth, driven by increasingly stringent municipal pool safety codes, rising residential pool construction activity, and growing consumer awareness of drowning prevention. The market will cross the $2 billion threshold around 2030, creating substantial runway for organic growth beyond acquisition synergies.

Clearlake Capital Group, the Santa Monica-based private equity firm with more than $90 billion of assets under management, has orchestrated a textbook buy-and-build strategy through PrimeSource Brands since acquiring the platform in December 2020.

The firm's approach reflects its proprietary O.P.S.® (Operations, People, Strategy) framework, which emphasizes operational improvements and strategic M&A to drive value creation. José E. Feliciano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and Colin Leonard, Partner, of Clearlake noted that the acquisition "reflects our commitment to strategic, value-creating M&A that enhances PrimeSource's market position and broadens our addressable market in specialty building products."

The pace of dealmaking has intensified dramatically. PrimeSource completed six of its ten acquisitions in the past 18 months, with the ninth acquisition, Fortress Railing, closing in July 2025, followed by the eighth acquisition, Keylink, in January 2025.

This acceleration suggests Clearlake is moving aggressively to consolidate market share ahead of a potential exit event, whether through sale to a strategic buyer or public markets listing. The firm's typical hold period ranges from four to seven years, placing PrimeSource in the middle of that window.

PrimeSource's acquisition strategy exploits fundamental structural characteristics of the specialty building products distribution market: extreme fragmentation, family-owned businesses approaching succession, and limited access to growth capital.

The company now operates 64 strategically located sites in 26 states and 2 countries, serving over 56,000 customer locations with a product catalog spanning more than 100,000 SKUs across construction fasteners, knobs and pulls, fencing and railing, and functional hardware.

This scale creates multiple competitive advantages:

Purchasing Power: Consolidated volume enables better pricing from overseas manufacturers, particularly critical given that much specialty hardware is sourced from Asia.

Logistics Efficiency: A dense network of distribution centers reduces shipping costs and delivery times, critical factors for contractors and builders operating on tight project schedules.

Customer Stickiness: The breadth of product offering creates one-stop-shop convenience, reducing customer incentive to split orders across multiple suppliers.

Cross-Selling Opportunities: Each acquisition brings existing customer relationships that can be leveraged to introduce complementary products from other portfolio brands.

While PrimeSource's portfolio spans multiple building product categories, the outdoor living segment has emerged as the strategic priority. Four of the past five acquisitions—Fortress Railing, Keylink, CityPost, and now Advantage Industries—directly strengthen this platform.

The outdoor living market benefits from several favorable secular trends:

While PrimeSource's acquisition track record demonstrates execution capability, integrating ten companies in just over five years presents significant operational challenges.

Systems Integration: Each acquired company brings legacy ERP systems, pricing structures, and customer databases that must be harmonized to realize cross-selling synergies.

Brand Architecture: PrimeSource has largely maintained acquired brands rather than consolidating under a single umbrella, requiring careful management of brand positioning and channel conflict.

Cultural Integration: Family-owned businesses like Advantage Industries often have deeply embedded cultures that can clash with private equity-backed operational intensity.

Talent Retention: Key employees at acquired companies, particularly sales relationships and technical experts, become critical retention priorities.

However, PrimeSource's experience integrating nine previous acquisitions provides institutional knowledge and repeatable processes. The company has demonstrated ability to maintain business continuity through transitions while capturing cost synergies over 12-24 month integration windows.

The PrimeSource-Advantage deal is part of broader consolidation across building products distribution. Private equity firms have identified the sector as ripe for roll-up strategies, leading to multiple competing platforms pursuing similar buy-and-build approaches.

For Competitors: Independent distributors and smaller regional players face increasing pressure. PrimeSource's scale advantages in purchasing, logistics, and product breadth make it difficult for smaller players to compete on price while maintaining service levels.

For Suppliers: Manufacturers selling through distribution must navigate the shift in channel power. Larger distributors like PrimeSource command better terms but also drive harder negotiations and may favor house brands over third-party products.

For Customers: Contractors and builders benefit from one-stop shopping convenience and potentially better pricing from scale efficiencies, but face reduced supplier diversity and potential channel concentration risk.

For Private Equity: The transaction validates continued appetite for specialty distribution assets despite broader concerns about interest rates and exit market conditions. Building products distribution offers defensive characteristics—essential products, fragmented markets, and operational improvement opportunities—that remain attractive in uncertain economic environments.

With ten acquisitions completed and integration processes underway, PrimeSource faces strategic choices about its next phase.

Continued Acquisition Activity: The fragmented nature of specialty building products suggests ample runway for additional tuck-in acquisitions. Potential targets might include complementary categories like outdoor lighting, irrigation hardware, or landscape accessories that serve similar customer bases.

Organic Growth Initiatives: Having assembled a comprehensive outdoor living portfolio, PrimeSource can shift focus toward organic growth through new product development, geographic expansion, and enhanced e-commerce capabilities.

Operational Excellence: Clearlake's O.P.S.® framework emphasizes operational improvements. With the platform largely built, attention may turn to margin expansion through supply chain optimization, pricing analytics, and sales force effectiveness.

Exit Preparation: At roughly five years into Clearlake's hold period, the firm may begin positioning PrimeSource for exit. Potential paths include sale to a strategic buyer (large building products manufacturers or distributors), secondary buyout to another private equity firm, or public markets listing.

The Advantage Industries acquisition strengthens PrimeSource's positioning for any of these scenarios by demonstrating continued growth momentum, expanding addressable markets, and building a differentiated outdoor living platform that commands premium valuation multiples.

PrimeSource Brands' acquisition of Advantage Industries represents more than a single transaction—it's the culmination of a five-year strategy to consolidate fragmented specialty building products distribution and build a dominant outdoor living platform.

The deal's timing capitalizes on attractive market dynamics in pool safety equipment while extending PrimeSource's product breadth into complementary gate and fence hardware. For Clearlake Capital, it demonstrates continued execution of the buy-and-build playbook that has driven value creation across the firm's industrials portfolio.

As the specialty building products sector continues consolidating, PrimeSource has established itself as the leading aggregator in outdoor living, creating a platform with scale, breadth, and market position that will be difficult for competitors to replicate. Whether the company pursues additional acquisitions, focuses on organic growth, or prepares for exit, the Advantage Industries deal strengthens its hand for whatever comes next.