M&A Boom: Fenestration Heats Up

The Bottom Line: M&A activity in the window and door industry has surged in 2024, with major acquisitions indicating strong buyer interest, a bullish outlook and expectations of continued growth fueled by lower interest rates.

M&A activity in 2024 has ramped up in the building products market, and the window and door industry is no exception. Strategic interest continues to be high, with marquee acquisitions early in the year of PGT Innovations (Miter Brands) and Masonite (Owens Corning) serving as bellwethers for strong buyer appetite and a bullish outlook toward underlying fundamentals supporting industry growth.

In April, Quanex Building Products Corp. announced the acquisition of Tyman plc., parent company of AmesburyTruth. The $1.2 billion cash and stock offer values the business at a 9.0x EBITDA multiple at transaction announcement. Quanex has identified the combination as “transformational,” significantly enhancing its scale and global reach with the addition of Tyman’s highly complementary offering in window and door hardware, commercial access solutions, seals and extrusions verticals. Tyman serves markets through three regional divisions (North America, UK and Ireland, and Europe). The acquisition is expected to be accretive and will bring Quanex’s pro forma revenue to approximately $2 billion.

Private equity

Private equity has reemerged equally hungry to deploy capital with strong support from the capital markets where lenders have shown an increased willingness to fund acquisitions.
Industrial Opportunity Partners announced it was forming a new platform, IBP Solutions, through the proposed acquisition of Masonite’s Architectural division. The business supplies doors and door systems to customers in the hospitality, healthcare, education and office industries.

Cornerstone Building Brands completed the acquisition of Harvey Building Products in April 2024. Harvey is a manufacturer of windows and doors under the Harvey, SoftLite and Thermo-Tech brands. CBB is a portfolio company of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, which it acquired in 2022 through a take-private transaction.

Luxury brand divestments

Private equity surfaced as the buyer of luxury brand Reilly Architectural from Pella Corp. this July. Kin Capital Partners, which owns portfolio company Stately Doors & Windows (Stately), acquired the business, which specializes in turnkey custom hardwood and steel doors and windows for luxury homes primarily located in New York (Hamptons, Manhattan) and Florida. 

The acquisition marks Stately’s eighth in four years under private equity ownership, bringing the company’s annual revenues to $100 million and growing its geographic footprint to nine locations in six states up and down the East Coast. Stately previously focused expansion efforts across the southern U.S. With the acquisition, Stately becomes the nation’s largest ultra-luxury door and window provider according to a company statement. “We see opportunity everywhere in the ultra-luxury market, because we have scaled to a size and skillset that allows us to provide something unique to our customers,” said Jude David, Stately co-founder and executive chairman.

Pella is also divesting luxury brand Duratherm. Duratherm will be sold to management under the leadership of CEO Tim Downing. Downing previously owned Duratherm before Pella acquired it in 2016 and led the business through Pella’s ownership. Duratherm is a Maine-based manufacturer and designer of custom hardwood windows and doors serving builders and architects.

A strong end to 2024

We expect M&A to accelerate through the remainder of the year, particularly with the expectation of lower interest rates as a positive driver of deal activity given the lower cost of growth and acquisition financing. BGL’s active pipeline of deals in the building products industry is another solid indicator of market strength. Our current clients—which include a mix of residential and commercial building products companies, some of which are window and door businesses—represent a cross-section of entrepreneurially and family-owned as well as private equity-backed sellers for which we anticipate strong interest from both strategic and private equity buyers.

Read more about Stately Doors & Windows.