Whitney & Co.

Founded in 1946, J.H. Whitney is among the oldest private equity firms in the United States, and its website says it is often credited with helping to create the industry. It trades today as Whitney & Co. and remains privately owned by its investing professionals. The firm says it has invested in more than 400 companies since it began, and its seventh outside fund, the one it is now drawing on, is backed by foundations, universities and pension funds.

A history that starts after the war

The founder, an industrialist and philanthropist, set up the firm with a founder's note that it should back companies whose management and purpose it could embrace wholeheartedly. Its early record, as the firm tells it, began with the first leveraged buyout after the Second World War: Spencer Chemicals, a munitions plant converted to make fertilizer. Shortly afterwards it was involved in bringing Minute Maid orange juice to market, a product partly developed in the kitchen of its New York offices at Rockefeller Center. Success in the 1940s led other prominent families to fund private equity, and the firm raised its first partnership from outside the founding family in 1990.

Small and middle market buyouts

The focus is on buyouts and recapitalizations of growth-oriented companies based in the United States, a niche the firm says helps it earn strong risk-adjusted returns for its investors. It will consider companies below the usual size ranges where cash flow, margins and growth justify it. The firm describes its practices as follows: debt is used to enhance returns but not to drive them; value comes from growing cash flow rather than financial engineering; and it provides active leadership after the investment as an engaged board member, though it says it is an investor and not an operator.

Sectors and portfolio

It organizes its work around three areas: packaged goods and brands; health care services, supplies and distribution; and niche manufacturing and specialty services, business services included. The portfolio page lists current and former holdings. Examples include Aarrowcast, which makes ductile iron castings; Aveanna, a provider of pediatric home healthcare; Cabi, a direct sales business in designer women's apparel; Caris, which offers pathology and molecular profiling; Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, a restaurant group; Igloo, a maker of insulated coolers; and Precision for Medicine, which provides specialty pharmaceutical services. The site notes that several of these are no longer in the portfolio.

Whitney & Co. is the private equity firm better known as J.H. Whitney, set up in 1946 by the industrialist and philanthropist John Hay Whitney. It is described as one of the first US private equity firms and is still owned by its investing professionals.

Products and services

• Private equity capital: funding for small and middle-market companies with growth prospects.
• Professional assistance: help for entrepreneurs growing their businesses.
• Fund investing: it is currently investing from its seventh outside private equity fund.

Who it works with

Companies in consumer products, brands and packaging; healthcare services, products and distribution; and niche manufacturing and specialty or business services. Its fund investors include foundations, universities and pension funds.

Key facts

• Founded: 1946
• Founder: John Hay Whitney
• Track record: investments in more than 400 companies since formation
• Ownership: its investing professionals