Cherry Tree advises Packaging Incorporated on its sale to Blackhawk Industrial

Blackhawk Industrial Acquires Packaging Incorporated and Expands with Three Additional Locations

BlackHawk Industrial, a market-leading distributor of metalworking, industrial, MROP, and packaging supplies, today announced the acquisition of Packaging Incorporated.

Founded in 1957, Packaging Incorporated is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Through a direct sales force, Packaging Incorporated is a leading provider of packaging and fastening equipment and supplies to a loyal and long-standing customer base in the Midwest.

With locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, Packaging Incorporated focuses on technical, value-added “outside the box” and “inside the box” packaging solutions, as well as niche fastening products.

Packaging Incorporated is the 11th acquisition of strong local industrial distributors by BlackHawk Industrial since the fall of 2010. The Packaging Incorporated acquisition allows BlackHawk to deepen their technical solutions focus across a new group of product offerings in the marketplace.

Packaging’s commercial management team will continue to lead the business as product category specialists within BlackHawk. On the technical side of the packaging and fastening business segment, Packaging’s expertise will help expand their efforts to grow the add-on product categories within the widening BlackHawk customer base.

With the acquisition of Packaging Incorporated, BlackHawk broadens its geographical footprint and sales penetration in the Minnesota and Wisconsin marketplaces. It also allows BlackHawk to enter Iowa with a new sales location. In the near future, Packaging Incorporated will expand into existing BlackHawk locations as excess warehouse space already exists. The first “co-located” facility will be in Omaha in Q1 2015. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Bill Scheller, CEO of BlackHawk Industrial, said: “We continue to attract and acquire the best local distributors in a given product category to become part of the business we are building in North America. By adding exciting ‘bolt-on’ product categories requiring a technical sales approach, such as packaging and fasteners, in conjunction with the Packaging Incorporated sales talent, we believe this is a pure win-win.”

BlackHawk Industrial will look to the sales team from Packaging Incorporated to work in partnership with our existing industrial sales team to bring a deeper set of technical solutions to our manufacturing end user customers.
About BlackHawk Industrial

BlackHawk Industrial is a market-leading industrial distributor with “BaseCamp” in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. BlackHawk is focused in metalworking such as carbide cutting tools, abrasives, saw blades, fabrication and machining equipment. They also provide a full-line MROP product offering. BlackHawk has a deep ability to provide custom industrial vending solutions and creative design, build, and supply chain solutions. By going above and beyond expectation, the knowledgeable and experienced FAMILY strives to deliver world-class service while providing AMAZEMENT for its customers, vendors, partners, and coworkers.

Sales locations in: Broken Arrow OK, Chicago IL, Cleveland OH (2), Del Rio TX, Denver CO, Des Moines IA, Duncan OK, Fort Smith AR, Hawthorne NJ, Kaukauna WI, Menomonie WI, Mexico, Milwaukee WI (2), Minneapolis MN, Oklahoma City OK, Omaha NE, Peoria IL, Portland OR, Rockford IL, Salt Lake City UT, Seattle WA, St. Cloud MN, Tulsa OK.