News

Acquisition

Houston, TX January 04, 2021

Frontline Road Safety, A Portfolio Company of The Sterling Group, Completes the Acquisition of Hi-Lite Airfield Services and Hires Tony G. Plut as CEO

Frontline Road Safety, a portfolio company of The Sterling Group (“Sterling”), today announced the acquisition of Hi-Lite Airfield Services and the hiring of CEO Tony G. Plut. Through its operating companies, Frontline provides pavement marking services to a variety of end markets and customers.

The Hi-Lite transaction marks Frontline’s fourth acquisition since the platform was established in July 2020. Headquartered in Watertown, NY and Bradenton, FL, Hi-Lite is the largest airfield-focused pavement marking contractor in North America. The company performs airfield marking and rubber removal services throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada and the Caribbean.

“Hi-Lite is a best-in-class operator, and a perfect fit within the expanding Frontline family of companies,” said Brad Staller, Partner at The Sterling Group. “The Frontline and Hi-Lite missions are completely aligned, and we look forward to working together to continue to provide the highest quality solutions to our customers,” said Chris Miller, President of Hi-Lite.

Brad Staller added, “We believe the addition of Tony to lead Frontline as CEO will further strengthen our ability to deliver superior execution and service for our customers on a local level, as well as continue to grow our footprint nationally.”

“I am thrilled to work alongside Sterling with the shared vision of building a national leader in the road safety industry and am excited by what this latest acquisition brings to our platform,” said Tony G. Plut, CEO of Frontline.

Over the last several years, Sterling has developed an investment thesis in the road safety and infrastructure maintenance industry. Through organic growth and further acquisitions, Sterling intends to build Frontline into the leading platform for road safety solutions with best-in-class local execution capabilities. Sterling has a long history of partnering with entrepreneurs and management teams to support the growth of their businesses.

About The Sterling Group

Founded in 1982, The Sterling Group is a private equity investment firm that targets controlling interests in basic manufacturing, distribution and industrial services companies. Typical enterprise values of these companies range from $100 million to $750 million. Sterling has sponsored the buyout of 57 platform companies and numerous add-on acquisitions for a total transaction value of over $14.0 billion. Currently, Sterling has over $4.0 billion of assets under management. For further information, please visit www.sterling-group.com.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results and all investments are subject to loss.

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