Portfolio Companies

Our current portfolio companies


Current Investments


 

Dobbs Truck Group

As the parent company of Dobbs Peterbilt and Western Truck Center, Dobbs Truck Group is a full line dealership group with New Trucks, Used Trucks, Parts, Service, Body Shops, Large Lease and Rental Fleets, Finance Business and a Vocational/Construction Rental division as well. As an authorized Peterbilt, Volvo, Mack, Autocar, Hino and Crane Carrier dealership, Dobbs Truck Group represent some of the most iconic OEM’s in the industry. With locations throughout Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington, Dobbs Truck Group is committed to ensuring complete customer satisfaction with an unmatched level of customer service.

Dobbs Equipment Group

Dobbs Equipment Group (“DJD Equipment Holdings”) is the parent company of Dobbs Equipment, LLC and Dobbs Equipment Southeast, LLC, a John Deere Construction and Forestry Dealership group operating in lower Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.  The Dobbs Family acquired its initial seven dealerships in Central & South Florida from Nortrax, a subsidiary of Deere & Co. in November of 2017, and expanded with the acquisition of 18 additional dealerships from Flint Equipment in Georgia, South Carolina and lower Alabama in October 2022.  Headquartered in Tampa, the Dobbs Equipment Group sells and supports John Deere’s extensive line of Construction and Forestry Equipment and Compact Construction Equipment.  Dobbs Equipment also represents ancillary product lines for construction, forestry and road building support including Cementech, Leeboy, Topcon, and The Wirtgen Group.

Behold Home

In 2018, along with Pittco Capital Partners and in partnership with Mr. Lyle Harris, the Dobbs Family acquired and merged Washington Furniture Sales and Behold Home and will operate under the Behold Home brand. Behold is a manufacturer and distributor of upholstered furniture and maintains its corporate office in Pontotoc, Mississippi where they employ over 350 people and operate a 750,000 square foot manufacturing facility. The Company has a second 140,000 square foot manufacturing and distribution facility in Smithville, Mississippi and plans to open a third production facility in early 2021.

Kukui

In 2019, the Dobbs Family acquired a minority stake in Kukui Corporation, a market-leading vertical software solution for the automotive aftermarket industry. The transaction was led by Memphis-based SSM Partners, a growth private equity firm specializing in Software as a Service (SaaS) investments. Since its launch in 2011, over 2,000 auto repair businesses worldwide have trusted Kukui to manage their marketing, websites and customer retention needs. Kukui’s focus is to enable shop owners to be successful both personally and professionally, and to provide them with solutions that build trust between motorists and their local repair shop. Kukui is based in Roseville, CA and serves customers in 48 states and 3 countries.

DCG ONE

In 2020, the Dobbs Family acquired Direct Connect Group dba DCG ONE in partnership with Clavis Capital. DCG ONE is an industry-leading specialty print production, packaging, and marketing solutions company based in Seattle, Washington. The Company serves major fortune 500 brands and evolved over its 50-year history into a full-service, embedded strategic partner supporting the marketing, branding and customer needs of its blue-chip customer base. DCG ONE has over 300 employees, 150 pieces of state-of-the-art production equipment and four production facilities with over 200,000 square feet of manufacturing space. Clavis Capital is a private investment firm with deep experience investing in, operating and growing US-based industrial businesses.

Disaster Resource Group

In 2020, the Dobbs Family acquired an interest in Disaster Resource Group, LLC. Disaster Resource Group provides turnkey services (lodging, catering, hygiene, tenting, power generation, supplemental equipment) in a “basecamp” format to assist recovery efforts after natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, and blizzards. The Company is based in Baton Rouge, LA and (with locations in Atlanta, GA and Raleigh, NC) and was founded in 2004 by the current CEO, Wayne Stabiler.

Disaster Resource Group serves major utility companies in the Southeast and Gulf Coast regions and has built a reputation for high-quality service and attention to detail in order to deliver consistent results for its customers. The Company's services also extend to Damage Assessment Teams (“DAT”), which include damage evaluators, line crews, and other technical and engineering solutions to meet the evolving needs of nationwide utility customers.

Sciath UAS, LLC

In 2020, the Dobbs family invested to form Sciath UAS, LLC (“Sciath”). Sciath’s goal is to build a leading end to end ISR platform as a Service Solutions Company. Sciath is building a dual-use platform of complementary sensor, data analytics, and communications technologies to offer a full suite of ISR products to both government and commercial customers.

Sciath completed its first investment in 2020 by acquiring OWT Global. OWT was founded by Keith Collins, Jerry Lavely and Keith Steiner in 2012 with the goal of becoming the nation’s premier technical services provider for the Department of Defense. The Company is headquartered in Tampa, Florida but completes missions across the world. OWT has roughly 70 employees (96% veterans) who have extensive experience supporting Special Operations and the Intelligence and Security Forces communities. OWT is regarded as a national leader in supporting ISR, UAS and C-sUAS operations.

Chelten House

In early 2021, Dobbs Management Service invested as a minority partner in Chelten House Products, Inc. through a partnership with Stephens Capital Partners, the prominent family office out of Little Rock, AR. Chelten House is a fourth-generation family business that is one of the largest private label food businesses in America, selling over 450 products to the top retailers in the US including decades long relationships with Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Kroger and Starbucks. Chelten House’s products include basic staples such as pasta sauces, condiments, marinades and salad dressings. Chelten House, which is headquartered in Bridgeport, New Jersey, was founded by the Dabrow Family in the 1940s in Philadelphia and is still owned and operated by the family today.

Click Here Digital

In August 2021, the Dobbs Family acquired Click Here Publishing dba Click Here Digital in partnership with Clavis Capital. Click Here Digital is a premier digital advertising agency based in Baton Rouge, LA that services a diverse set of medium to large scale business and in particular, the automotive dealership space with which the Dobbs have a proven track record operating. Click Here offers a high touch, customer centric experience that deploys its customers’ digital marketing budgets to provide its clients with programmatic advertising services including social media advertising, search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), digital video and display advertising, connected TV/OTT, and consulting and strategy.

ITC Broadband

In July 2021, DMS partnered with The 4612 Group and other family office investors to form ITC Broadband Holdings, LLC, a new start-up operated by two seasoned broadband executives, Cam Lanier and Jerry Elliot. In a series of partnerships, ITC Broadband acquired USConnect Holdings, a rural broadband provider and regional IT services firm. ITC Broadband, through its operating platform, USConnect, will leverage its deep telecom operating experience and expanded resources to bring high speed internet to unserved and underserved customers throughout the US.

Riverstone Logistics

In October 2021, the Dobbs family partnered with 4612 Group to acquire Riverstone Logistics, a heavy-goods, final mile logistics solutions provider. Based in Charlotte, NC but serving regional and multi-national retailers, Riverstone provides logistics and supply chain solutions to the furniture, appliance, electronics, and building products industries.

EnergySolutions

In 2022, the Dobbs family acquired a minority stake in EnergySolutions by partnering with TriArtisan Capital Advisors (the lead investor) and Stephens Capital Partners. This investment was in support of TriArtisan’s acquisition of the remaining interests of the existing majority shareholder. EnergySolutions is an international nuclear services company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with operations throughout the United States, Canada and Japan. EnergySolutions is an industry leader in the safe recycling, processing and disposal of nuclear material. EnergySolutions provide a full range of Decommissioning and Decontamination services to shut down nuclear power plants. The Company’s customers include the United States Government, all United States Nuclear Power Plants, along with various medical and research facilities.

 

 


Previous Investment Holdings


 

Premier Distributing Company

In 1982, the Dobbs family purchased Premier Distributing Corporation, an Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship based in Albuquerque, New Mexico with branch locations in Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Farmington, Gallup and Clovis. In the 40 years of Dobbs ownership, PDC grew the Anheuser Busch market share from 26% to over 60%. The Dobbs family sold PDC to Hensley Beverage Company in May 2023.

Strategic Behavioral Health

Strategic Behavioral Health (SBH) was a new start-up investment made by the Dobbs family in 2006. Based out of Memphis, SBH developed and operated a chain of 10 behavioral health hospitals across the country. In 2013, SBH was named Memphis Business Journals Fastest Growing Private Company, with gross sales of more than $83 million. The Dobbs family sold SBH in December 2021.

Highline Aftermarket Holdings

In 2008, Dobbs Management Service purchased DYK Automotive LLC, an automotive aftermarket parts distribution based out of Memphis, TN. In 2009, DYK acquired Keltner, an automotive distributer specializing in oil and based out of Springfield, MO. In 2012, the company merged with Twinco Romax, adding manufacturing capabilities and moving the headquarters to Medina, MN.

In 2016, DYK was merged with AAHC and the controlling ownership sold to the Sterling Group. Dobbs Management Service retained a minority interest in the company and is represented on the Board of Directors. Since the sale, the Sterling Group along with its investors, have continued to grow the business through acquisitions in the automotive distribution industry, including a recent purchase of Service Champ in 2017.

In November, DMS and the Sterling Group finalized the sale of Highline to Pritzker Private Capital.

Three Rivers and Unison Health Plans

In 1995, the Dobbs family invested in Unison Health Plans (then called Three Rivers), a start-up Medicaid HMO in Pennsylvania. Just over a decade later, the company had expanded to five states and was bringing in over $1 billion in revenue annually. In 2008, the Dobbs family sold Unison to United Health Group.

Frenkel and Co.

Frenkel and Company was founded in 1878 and was acquired by the Dobbs family in 2010. Frenkel operates as a full service international insurance brokerage and is consistently ranked in the top fifty largest in the USA. In November 2017, Frenkel was acquired by EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants. Backed by Oak Hill Capital Partners, EPIC now has more than 1,300 team members operating from offices across the U.S., providing Property & Casualty insurance, Employee Benefits Consulting, Specialty Programs and Private Client solutions to more than 30,000 clients. The company now operates as Frenkel & Company – an EPIC Company.

Potter Electric Signal Company, LLC

Potter is a fire and security control company based in St. Louis, MO. The company was founded in 1898 and designs, manufactures, and distributes sprinkler monitoring, security, and fire alarm equipment to customers across the globe. Operations are international in scope with a physical presence in the United States, Europe and Asia. Product categories include pressure switches, fire and security alarm panels, notifying devices and valve control devices. The Dobbs family is a significant minority principal investor since 2008 and is represented on the Potter Board of Directors. The company is actively seeking add-on acquisitions of companies and product lines for its portfolio.

Dobbs Restaurant Holdings

In late 2016, Dobbs Management Service invested as a minority partner in 196 Burger King stores across Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. We are excited about the partnership with two prominent family offices, The 4612 Group, and The Cynosure Group. These stores are being integrated into an existing Burger King group and managed by an experienced team with a proven track record of success.

In 2017 and 2019, DMS made follow-up investments within Dobbs Restaurant Holdings to acquire 11 Popeye’s and 75 Pizza Hut restaurants, respectively. In August 2021, the Dobbs family supported management in completing a high yield debt issuance to simplify the capital structure and provide an exit event for the family. The capital provided by the Dobbs family allowed the Company to grow to be one of the top franchises in the United States with a founder-friendly structure.