Jacksonville, Florida – October 13, 2020 – Shoreline Equity Partners, LLC (“Shoreline” or the “Firm”), a purpose-driven lower middle market private equity firm, has partnered with Bay Area Pools and Spas Holdings, LLC (“Pool Troopers” or the “Company”). Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Pool Troopers is a premier provider of chemical, cleaning, maintenance, and repair services for residential pools in Florida, Texas, and Arizona. Having established a respected brand and reputation, Pool Troopers ranked #1 in the 2019 Pool & Spa News and Jandy list of top pool service providers nationwide. Over the past decade under the leadership of Gary Crayton and Dave Hahmann, the Company has doubled in size and today has over 165 employees serving over 15,000 residential customers. Moving forward and in partnership with Shoreline, Pool Troopers is looking to grow exponentially through an aggressive acquisition strategy. The new partnership with Shoreline provides the Company with both the acquisition experience and access to the substantial capital needed to acquire numerous pool service businesses throughout the Sunbelt region. Combining the Company’s established market position and unmatched track record of growth with Shoreline’s acquisition and integration experience, the partnership makes Pool Troopers the clear acquirer of choice in the industry. Gary and Dave will continue to lead the Company and maintain a significant ownership position.

Mike Hand, Managing Partner at Shoreline, said, “Gary, Dave, and the rest of their team have done an exceptional job growing Pool Troopers and have established the Company as a clear leader in the pool service space. They have created a strong culture that we look forward to maintaining as we expand into new markets. We are extremely grateful to be able to partner with the Pool Troopers team to help accelerate growth both organically and through add-on acquisitions across the Sunbelt region.”

Gary Crayton, Chief Executive Officer of Pool Troopers, said, “Shoreline is the perfect partner. They understand the intricacies of the pool industry and that you need pool people running a pool business. The Shoreline team believes in our growth strategy and will be highly complementary to our pool industry knowledge. We believe that our partnership will make Pool Troopers the acquirer of choice on day one and we are immediately looking to rapidly expand through the acquisition of high-quality pool service businesses in our chosen markets.”¹

Dave Hahmann, President of Pool Troopers, said, “We could not be more excited to partner with Shoreline. It was important for us to find a partner who actually listened to our goals and was aligned with our growth strategy. We are excited to embark on our next chapter of growth through investments in people and systems without compromising the high-quality service levels for which Pool Troopers, America’s Backyard Heroes, is known.”²

The transaction for Shoreline was led by Mike Hand, Managing Partner; Zach Mittelmark, Vice President; Jen Lada, Chief Financial Officer; Mike Mancini, Associate and Mac McCready, Associate. Fidus Partners represented Pool Troopers in the transaction.

About Pool Troopers
Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Pool Troopers is a premier provider of chemical, cleaning, maintenance, and repair services for residential pools in Florida, Texas, and Arizona. Ranked #1 in the 2019 Pool & Spa News and Jandy list of top pool service providers nationwide, Pool Troopers serves over 15,000 residential customers. For more information, please visit wwww.pooltroopers.com.

About Shoreline
Shoreline is a lower middle market private equity firm focused on actively partnering with leading management teams. Shoreline follows a total stakeholder model, meaning success should be a “win-win” proposition for shareholders, employees, customers, vendors, and the communities within which the Firm’s companies operate. Shoreline professionals believe in honesty, incentive alignment, and creating bigger, better businesses without relying on financial engineering or cost cutting to generate returns. Investing out of the Firm’s inaugural $300 million fund, Shoreline seeks to lead equity investments of up to $100 million per transaction in support of buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate divestitures. Targeted businesses have enterprise values ranging from $25 million to $250 million and EBITDA of $3 million to $25 million. The Firm strives to partner with management teams of businesses primarily within the specialized manufacturing, value-added distribution, and business and facility services sectors, among others. For more information, please visit www.shorelineequitypartners.com.

For further information, please contact:
Zach Mittelmark
Vice President
Shoreline Equity Partners, LLC
(904) 222-6544
mittelmark@shorelineequitypartners.com

1-Mr. Crayton is not an investor in any of Shoreline Equity Partners’ investment funds, but serves as a board member at one of its portfolio companies.

2-Mr. Hahmann is not an investor in any of Shoreline Equity Partners’ investment funds, but serves as a board member at one of its portfolio companies