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Watchfire Signs, 1015 Maple St., Danville, has been acquired by H.I.G. Capital of Miami, Fla.

Watchfire Signs, 1015 Maple St., Danville, has been acquired by H.I.G. Capital of Miami, Fla.

MIAMI, Fla. — Watchfire officials are excited about the Danville-based sign company being acquired by an investment firm and what the future holds.

H.I.G. Capital, a leading global alternative investment firm with $50 billion of equity capital under management, announced this week that one of its affiliates has completed the acquisition of Watchfire Signs, LLC. The transaction closed on July 22.

“After a successful hold period, our former private equity partner, The Jordan Company, decided to sell its interest in Watchfire to H.I.G. Capital, a leading global alternative investment firm with $50 billion of equity capital under management,” according to Watchfire officials. “H.I.G. is partnering with Watchfire because they are excited about the foundation we’ve built, our growth plans and leadership position within our industry.”

“H.I.G. is in a position to provide capital and resources to support Watchfire’s growing position, both organically and through acquisitions, across multiple segments of the digital display industry, including indoor and outdoor LED signage, digital billboards and video scoreboards,” Watchfire officials continued. “H.I.G. has exciting plans for growth at Watchfire and we believe having a partner of their scale can only create more opportunities for expansion here in Danville.”

There will be no name change or building, location changes with the acquisition.

Watchfire has more than 350 employees and was recently certified a “Great Place to Work.”

Watchfire is hiring and has more than 20 open positions.

“We are aggressively seeking qualified candidates across the organization, and we think H.I.G.’s ownership can only strengthen our plans,” Watchfire officials stated.

“We meet the digital signage needs of thousands of businesses in North America and will continue to do so with predictable lead times, a high-quality product and unmatched customer service,” Watchfire officials said.

Watchfire, located at 1015 Maple St., Danville, is a leading manufacturer of premium digital signage with best-in-class lead times, product quality, customer service and support. The company serves a highly diverse base of local sign dealers, independent billboard operators and large national accounts.

In 2019, Watchfire upgraded Las Vegas’ Fremont Street canopy, which is the largest single video screen in the world with more than 130,000 square feet of digital signage.

H.I.G. is partnering with the current Watchfire management team to provide capital and resources to support the company’s growing position across multiple segments of the digital display industry, including indoor and outdoor LED signage, digital billboards and video scoreboards. Watchfire’s strong brand reputation and expansive customer network have allowed the company to establish an installed base of more than 65,000 LED displays, highlighting its position as a leader in the large and growing digital display market.

Steve Harriott, CEO of Watchfire said, “I am happy to be partnering with H.I.G. Capital to continue to drive growth, both organically and through aggressively pursuing add-on acquisition opportunities. We are excited to leverage H.I.G.’s considerable experience investing in outdoor advertising companies to accelerate our own growth initiatives.”

“We believe Watchfire represents an ideal opportunity to invest in a premier provider of digital signage at a time when market tailwinds such as digital transformation and the replacement of aging signage will continue to drive growth,” said Ryan Kaplan, managing director at H.I.G., adding “We look forward to supporting Steve and the rest of his executive team as they continue to lead the company through its next exciting phase of expansion.”

Watchfire has manufactured electric signs for 90 years and LED displays since 1998 using meticulously sourced components from around the world. Watchfire has more than 65,000 LED displays in operation worldwide and has more digital billboard customers in the U.S. than any other brand.

H.I.G. is a leading global private equity and alternative assets investment firm. Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/ value-added approach:

H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.

H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance.

H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.

H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector.

Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $30 billion.

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