Harbour Group, in conjunction with President David Wood and other senior management, acquired Danville, Ill.-based Time-O-Matic, Inc. from members of the extended Wood family, Jeff Fox, Harbour Group’s chief executive officer, announced. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Time-O-Matic Inc. is the highly-regarded designer, manufacturer, and marketer of Watchfire- branded digital light-emitting diode (“LED”) displays, billboards, and related software that serve a variety of outdoor commercial display applications. For over 75 years, Time-O-Matic (now known primarily as “Watchfire”) has enjoyed a strong market position built on constant innovation, service excellence, and unrivaled product quality.
Mr. Fox said, “The Wood family and management have built an excellent business – Watchfire’s outstanding reputation in their industry is unmatched. We believe there are compelling drivers in the market for the conversion to LED-based signs, billboards, and messaging systems. In addition to market growth, we see exciting opportunities to drive growth through internal initiatives. And we continue to search broadly for additional complementary acquisitions.”
David Wood added, “My siblings and I did a great deal of soul-searching prior to making this decision. After spending time with the Harbour Group team, I am confident that they have the values, tools, and resources necessary to help Watchfire achieve our long-term objectives. The keys to the company’s success have been our product quality, our extensive dealer network, and our focus on servicing the customer; we picked a partner who understands the importance of these fundamental aspects of our business. Harbour Group will help take Watchfire to the next level.”
Harbour Group is a privately owned company based in St. Louis, Mo. Harbour Group and its operating companies are engaged in the manufacture and distribution of a wide variety of consumer and industrial products, including decorative kitchen and bath hardware, specialty LED lighting products, linear actuators and switches, automotive-enthusiast products, lubricating systems and equipment, abrasives, diamond cutting products and related tools, entertainment and music products, and auxiliary plastic processing equipment. Since its founding in 1976, Harbour Group has acquired 156 companies in 34 different industries.
