We buy fantastic companies in niche markets.
Specialty manufacturing and tech-enabled services. We are a family of acquirers and operators, not private equity, and we hold for the long term.
25+
Years of experience
20+
Successful partnerships
4
Generations of family business
About Us
A family that builds companies, four generations deep.
Waxman Ventures is our family's acquisition company. Our story starts in 1934, when Stanley Waxman opened a small Cleveland shop in the depths of the Great Depression. Four generations later, the same family is still doing the same thing: finding excellent niche businesses and helping them grow.
We are operators, not private equity. Across 25+ years of hands-on experience and 20+ successful partnerships, we have scaled multiple companies to nine figures of revenue, through booms, downturns, and everything in between.
Because we invest our own capital, we answer to no fund clock. We buy businesses to hold them for the long term, which changes everything about how we behave: how we treat your team, how we invest in the product, and how patient we can be about growth.
Today we focus on specialty manufacturing and tech-enabled services, from our home base at 19505 Biscayne Blvd, Suite 2350 in Aventura.
Our Legacy
Three generations, in their own words.
Businesses come and go. Families that build them, generation after generation, are rarer. This short film brings together three generations of Waxmans talking about the work, the values, and the people behind ninety years of company building.
It is the best answer we have to the question every founder asks us: who would I really be selling to?
Portfolio Spotlights
What we own and operate today.
Manufacturing
C&D Printing & Packaging
A St. Petersburg, Florida folding-carton and commercial print manufacturer, operating since 1973. From a 40,000 square foot facility, C&D produces packaging and print for food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics brands, with G7 and FSC certifications behind every run.
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Tech-Enabled Services
Excellware
An Ohio company serving small and mid-sized wholesale, distribution, and e-commerce businesses since 1974. Its Dynamo cloud ERP platform runs sales, inventory, and accounting for customers across the country, backed by hands-on IT support.
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Notable Exits
We build to hold. And when the time is right, we know how to sell well.
Between 1982 and 1989 the family grew sales from $36 million to $238.9 million through acquisitions from Cleveland to Montreal to Tijuana, including the Ideal Group, a $205 million distributor that nearly doubled the company overnight. The businesses it built have found homes worthy of them.
Barnett Brass & Copper
IPO, then part of The Home Depot today
Acquired in 1984 for $12.5 million and built into a national direct-marketing distribution powerhouse, with U.S. Lock acquired and folded in along the way. Taken public on NASDAQ in 1996; the family's remaining stake sold for $94.5 million in 2000, and the business it built is part of The Home Depot today.
Shower & Specialty Plumbing
Acquired by H.I.G. Capital's Homewerks
The family's shower and plumbing repair lines, PlumbCraft, Body Moods, and AquaLife, carrying 22 patents and 19 trademarks, were acquired in 2022 by Homewerks Worldwide, backed by H.I.G. Capital.
Super Sliders & Floor Care
Acquired by Blue Wolf Capital's Colson Group
The family's floor care brands, Super Sliders, SoftTouch, and Titan Casters, were built into national retail staples and acquired in 2022 by Shepherd Hardware, part of Blue Wolf Capital's Colson Group.
Our Value-Add
What your business gains the day we partner.
Operators, not financiers
We are not private equity. We are a family of operators who have built, run, and scaled companies to nine figures of revenue. When we partner with a business, we roll up our sleeves alongside the team.
A playbook for tech-enabled services
For tech-enabled service businesses, we invest in the systems and tooling behind the service, backed by our own engineering resources, so delivery gets stronger while the customer relationships you built stay intact.
A playbook for manufacturing
For specialty manufacturers, we bring sourcing relationships and multi-channel go-to-market resources. This family has stocked national retail before: K-Mart once chose it to supply packaged plumbing to 2,300 stores nationwide.
Regional depth, big-picture vision
We take a hyper-regional approach to scaling: win your market deeply, one region at a time, while keeping the big picture in mind. It is how our family has grown businesses for four generations.
Selling Your Business
Selling your business is a big decision. We treat it that way.
You spent years, maybe decades, building something real. Handing it to the right owner is a critical and complicated decision, and as a family-run company we treat every conversation, every demo, and every financial document with care, like family.
Discretion from day one
Every conversation, demo, and financial document is handled with care and kept in confidence. Your customers, employees, and competitors hear about a sale when you decide they should.
Continuity for your people
We buy to hold, not to flip. The team that built the business is the reason we want it, and keeping good people in place is core to how we operate.
A fair, straightforward process
No games, no re-trades, no wall of lawyers. We tell you what we see, we pay a fair price, and we move at a pace that respects the decades you put into the company.
Respect for your legacy
Your brand, your customers, and your company's future direction matter to us, because our own name has been on businesses since 1934. We treat your legacy like family, because that is how we run ours.
Case Studies
Ninety years of building. Five stories worth telling.
1934 to 1987
From Cleveland Roots to National DIY Leader
How Waxman Industries grew from a single Cleveland shop to a $100M national distributor.
Read the story →
The 1970s
Resilience Through Market Downturns
How Waxman rebounded from losses to lead the industry.
Read the story →
1984 to 1986
Strategic Acquisitions That Drove Market Leadership
How Waxman expanded its reach through a disciplined M&A strategy.
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The 1980s
Building Enduring Brands
How Waxman created product lines that became staples in American homes.
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1984 to 2000
From $10M Startup to National Catalog Powerhouse
How Waxman scaled Barnett Brass & Copper from a $10M business to a public company with triple-digit millions in revenue.
Read the story →
Contact Us
Thinking about what comes next for your company?
Whether you are ready to sell or just starting to think about it, we are happy to talk. Every conversation is confidential, and there is never any obligation.
19505 Biscayne Blvd, Suite 2350, Aventura, Florida 33180