Colson Group Acquires Finnish Caster Manufacturer Manner

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OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL., February 8th, 2023— Colson Group, the global leader in caster and wheel product solutions, announces their acquisition of Manner, a Hanko-based caster manufacturer.

“We are excited to be joining Colson Group, the largest manufacturer and distributor of caster and wheel products in the world,” said Tapio Manner, Chairman of the Board. “Since my family started Manner over 130 years ago, we have grown to become the leading caster manufacturer in the Nordic countries, with a reputation for quality and reliable service to our long-standing customers. I am confident that together with Colson Group, a company that shares our values and commitment to excellence, Manner will continue its long tradition of outstanding production in Hanko for many years to come.”

Manner is a Finnish company that specializes in the design, manufacturing and marketing of casters and caster solutions. Manner is a market leader in the design and manufacturing of more than 2,000 different casters for a variety of applications. Manner’s range includes equipment casters, medical casters, and casters for applications in logistics and in industry.

“We are pleased to have found a trusted partner in Colson Group, with its own long history of business excellence,” said Jukka Immonen, Managing Director of Manner. “I look forward to continuing Manner’s legacy of strong performance and unparalleled commitment to its customers, suppliers and employees.”

“Under the leadership and care of the Manner family, Manner has earned a reputation and track record of quality and reliability, as a leader in the design and manufacture of medical casters,” said Richard Kobor, CEO of Colson Group. “We are proud to welcome Manner to the Colson Group and to support the company’s longstanding leading position in the Nordic region. Across the world, Colson Group’s portfolio brands and products are known for their quality, safety, and innovation, and Manner will continue to excel under our new partnership.”

About Manner
Manner is a traditional family-owned company founded in 1890. Manner has over 80 years’ experience in the design and manufacture of a variety of caster products. The first Manner casters were manufactured in the 1930s, and since 1974, the company has focused exclusively on caster products. Today Manner’s products are used worldwide in demanding environments where quality, reliability and design are required.

About Colson Group
Colson Group, the global leader in caster and wheel products, creates and drives solutions that move lives forward. World renowned brands provide specialized mobility for every industry and market. A leading product portfolio and proprietary global value chain delivery unparalleled efficiencies and support. With over 1,600 employees across 25 global facilities, Colson Group is committed to its customers’ success.

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For information regarding actual open positions at Colson Group, and to apply for employment with Colson, use the Careers section of this website.

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Colson Group Makes All Employees an Owner with New Employee Ownership Program

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OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL., April 5th, 2022—Colson Group, the global leader in caster and wheel products, has unveiled a new equity participation program which grants employees shares in the company and encourages employees to “act like owners.” Chief Executive Officer Rich Kobor announced that the organization will provide this opportunity to all Colson employees worldwide at an employee appreciation event held at the construction site of the new Colson Group facility in Jonesboro, AR.

“We are working to create a culture of ownership and transparency,” said Kobor. “Our employees make our company what it is, and we want all of them to better share in our success. Our goal is to inspire our employees to act like owners, so that they have a stake in our company’s growth and a voice in our direction.”

The program, which is being structured and implemented in partnership with non-profit Ownership Works, aligns with Colson Group’s interest in creating and developing a strong culture of pride and engagement among its employees. The program aims to encourage employees to take greater responsibility for their work at the company by aligning the interests of both the company and the individual.

“Importantly, we believe this program could make a meaningful difference in the lives of our employees and their families, while driving increased value for Colson,” said David Wells, Chief Human Resources Officer.

This approach is based on the conviction that employees are significantly more likely to personally identify with their company if they own a part of it. Employee co-owners are more motivated and committed, willing to assume responsibility, and contribute to their company’s long-term success.

Colson Group is a portfolio company of Blue Wolf Capital Partners LLC, New York-based private equity firm that builds stronger businesses by combining financial and operational discipline with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles.

About Colson Group:
Colson Group, the global leader in caster and wheel products, creates and drives solutions that move lives forward. World renowned brands provide specialized mobility for every industry and market. A leading product portfolio and proprietary global value chain delivery unparalleled efficiencies and support. With over 1,600 employees across 25 global facilities, Colson Group is committed to its customers’ success, ensuring proper products are selected or designed from the start, and always keeping the end-users’ safety, efficiency, and happiness in mind.

Press Contact: Eric Gorte
Phone: 989-859-1864
Email: [email protected]

Colson Group Announces Strategic Acquisition by Blue Wolf Capital Partners

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COLSON GROUP ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC ACQUISITION BY BLUE WOLF CAPITAL PARTNERS

Aligned philosophies and vision for increasing customer value and accelerating global growth

OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL., March 1, 2021 — Colson Group, a global leader in caster and wheel product solutions, today announced its acquisition by Blue Wolf Capital Partners LLC (“Blue Wolf”).

“We are excited to partner with Blue Wolf, a firm that shares our philosophies and vision for Colson Group,” stated Tom Blashill, CEO of Colson Group. “While our strong global brands and experienced team attracted substantial investor attention, Blue Wolf differentiated themselves. Their expertise and deep understanding of industrial businesses and customer channels will be a tremendous asset in our plans for operational and service excellence. Blue Wolf appreciates the work completed so far in our global transformation and their skillset and strategy will help accelerate it with further investments in domestic manufacturing, service technologies, and product solutions that continue to separate us from the competition.”

Blue Wolf is a New York-based private equity firm that builds stronger businesses by combining financial and operational discipline with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles. The firm works closely with management to create value at companies in specialty sectors including niche manufacturing, industrial & engineering services, forest & building products and healthcare services.

“Our experience building best-in-class industrial manufacturing companies positions Blue Wolf well to support Colson Group in accelerating growth and enhancing its current market position and manufacturing strategy,” said Adam Blumenthal, Managing Partner of Blue Wolf Capital Partners. “We are excited to partner with Tom Blashill and the Colson Group management team to provide the necessary capital and resources to drive long-term growth opportunities for the company and its customers. We look forward to building on Colson Group’s rich legacy of product solutions and long-standing business relationships with our commitment to organizational and operational excellence.”

Former owner Sentinel Capital Partners sold Colson Group to Blue Wolf after acquiring the company in 2012. Prior to Sentinel, the company was held by Robert Pritzker who acquired the Colson caster brand in 1953 and built it into the worldwide caster leader that is now Colson Group.

About Colson Group (www.ColsonGroup.com): Colson Group, a global leader in caster and wheel products, creates and drives solutions that move lives forward. World renowned brands provide specialized mobility for every industry and market. A leading product portfolio and proprietary global value chain deliver unparalleled efficiencies and support. With over 1,600 employees across 30 global facilities, Colson Group is committed to its customers’ success, ensuring proper products are selected or designed from the start, and always keeping the end-users’ safety, efficiency, and happiness in mind.

About Blue Wolf Capital Partners: Blue Wolf Capital Partners LLC is a private equity firm that specializes in control investments in middle market companies. Leading by experience, and with a commitment to excellence, Blue Wolf transforms companies strategically, operationally and collaboratively. Blue Wolf manages challenging situations and complex relationships between business, customers, employees, unions, and regulators to build value for stakeholders. For additional information, please visit www.bluewolfcapital.com.

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COLSON GROUP INTRODUCES NEW ANTIMOCRIBIAL SOFT WHEEL FOR HIGH-TEMP STEAM STERILIZATION AND WASH DOWN APPLICATIONS

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OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL (January 19, 2021) — Colson Group, a global leader in manufacturing casters and wheels, has officially launched an advanced new series of wheels specially made for use on equipment that’s frequently exposed to high-temperature sterilization chambers and repeated cart wash applications. The new Sterilizer High-Temp Soft Wheels are antimicrobial, competitively priced, and feature desirable performance characteristics exceeding wheels typically used in these applications.

As explained by Jeffrey Bader, the company’s product manager for the medical segment, “Hospitals and labs often sterilize instruments and equipment utilizing wheeled carts that historically required hard wheels to handle the frequent exposure to high temperatures and vacuum pressure. This was due to traditional soft wheels flat spotting, melting or breaking down relatively quickly in these conditions—despite it being the preferred option for mobility performance, and noise and vibration reduction. With this launch, customers can now attain these mobility benefits with a soft wheel specifically designed to address these challenges—making the MedCaster Sterilizer Wheel a superior option for case carts, sterilizer carts, test cages, lab equipment and operating room equipment.”

Sterilizer High-Temp Soft Wheels were formulated and independently tested to withstand typical steam sterilization cycles of 280°F at -32 psi vacuum pressure, without developing flat spots or having the outer tread separate from the core. Even under these extreme conditions, the wheels provide excellent traction and quiet performance, absorbing shock and vibration much greater than the hard wheels traditionally required.

Available in both 5” and 6” wheel diameters, MedCaster Sterilizer wheels feature stainless steel thread guards to prevent the collection of entangling debris, dual-shielded precision ball bearings for smooth and quiet mobility, and debris-rejecting antimicrobial treads for durability and performance. Add the Sterilizer Wheel to MedCaster’s recently upgraded SX Series swivel, rigid, total lock, or direction lock caster solutions to gain all of the high-temp benefits for your carts or equipment. For additional information, please visit www.medcaster.com/Sterilizer or connect with caster experts at www.medcaster.com/contact to help solve any of your mobility needs.

About Colson Group: Colson Group, the global leader in caster and wheel products, creates and drives solutions that move lives forward. World renowned brands provide specialized mobility for every industry and market. A leading product portfolio and proprietary global value chain delivery unparalleled efficiencies and support. With over 1,600 employees across 25 global facilities, Colson Group is committed to its customers’ success, ensuring proper products are selected or designed from the start, and always keeping the end-users’ safety, efficiency, and happiness in mind.

Colson Group Acquires Assets of Vulcan Industries, Inc.

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Expands global product solutions and service capabilities.

OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL., October 21, 2020 — Colson Group, a leading global caster and wheel company, announced today that it has completed the asset acquisition of Vulcan Industries, Inc..

“With complementing products and customer bases, this acquisition was a natural fit to broaden and enhance the product solutions and services available to our collective customers,” stated Tom Blashill, CEO of Colson Group. “United by common goals for quality products and responsive service, we are committed to advancing the high level of service Vulcan customers are familiar with through our established global infrastructure and investments in technology and people.”

For years, the Vulcan brand has provided customers throughout North America with high quality casters for various light and medium duty applications—specializing in solutions for food service, hospitality, and medical industries.

“This acquisition integrates the Vulcan brand and resources into Colson Group’s leading portfolio and US infrastructure, enabling it to leverage new channels for growth,” said Bjorn Haldorsen, President of Colson Group North America. “In addition, Vulcan customers now also have access to our global engineering, manufacturing, and service resources to help them solve any of their mobility or supply chain challenges. We are extremely pleased to welcome the Vulcan team to Colson Group.”

About Colson Group (www.ColsonGroup.com): Colson Group, the global leader in caster and wheel products, creates and drives solutions that move lives forward. World renowned brands provide specialized mobility for every industry and market. A leading product portfolio and proprietary global value chain delivery unparalleled efficiencies and support. With over 1,600 employees across 30 global facilities, Colson Group is committed to its customers’ success, ensuring proper products are selected or designed from the start, and always keeping the end-users’ safety, efficiency, and happiness in mind.

Colson Group Appoints Bjorn Haldorsen as President of North America

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New role will optimize growth initiatives and strengthen market position.

 

OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL., May 8, 2020 — Colson Group, a global caster and wheel product company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Bjorn Haldorsen as President of Colson North America. In this capacity, Bjorn will lead the company’s North American business operations, with focus on optimizing growth initiatives, expanding North American supply chain and manufacturing, and furthering the strategic integration of Colson North America to best service the marketplace.

This is a new position created by the company, highlighting its focus on growth for North America.

“As we continue to expand production capacity closer to our customers, the requirement for this role has grown and is now a critical step to accelerating our growth plans into the future,” stated Tom Blashill, CEO of Colson Group. “After an extensive search, we found the right person for this role, and I am happy to welcome Bjorn to the Colson team.”

With a focus on customer experience, Bjorn comes to Colson with over 25 years of leadership experience in supply chain, plant management, and general management. Prior to Colson, Bjorn worked for Honeywell International for 8 years and has been with Flowserve Corporation since 2002, where he served in various regional and global leadership roles. Most recently, Bjorn was the Vice President General Manager of Flowserve’s Americas Industrial Pump Operation where he was responsible for all business functions, leading more than 1,000 employees.

Bjorn received his Bachelor’s degree in purchasing and logistics management from Arizona State University and his M.B.A. in international finance at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He will reside at the company’s corporate headquarters in Oakbrook, IL with extensive travel to all company facilities.

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About Colson Group (www.ColsonGroup.com):

Colson Group, the global leader in caster and wheel products, creates and drives solutions that move lives forward. World renowned brands provide specialized mobility for every industry and market. A leading product portfolio and proprietary global value chain delivery unparalleled efficiencies and support. With over 1,600 employees across 30 global facilities, Colson Group is committed to its customers’ success, ensuring proper products are selected or designed from the start, and always keeping the end-users’ safety, efficiency, and happiness in mind.

Colson Group announces acquisition of AS Rollen GmbH

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Expands global caster and wheel manufacturing capabilities.

OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL., April 30, 2020 — Colson Group, a global caster and wheel product company, announced today the recent acquisition of AS Rollen, a Huckeswagen, Germany caster and wheel manufacturer. “AS Rollen has an excellent reputation for producing high quality, competitive caster and wheel solutions, specializing in the medical segment,” stated Tom Blashill, CEO of Colson Group. “This strategic acquisition will provide our global locations an excellent source of German manufactured caster solutions.” The company is located only minutes from Colson Group’s German offices.

AS Rollen and its staff, led by founder Mr. Arnolf Schulte, are now integrated into Colson Group’s Northern European organization which is led by General Manager, Ernst-Jan Venema. “The synergies of products and staff will enhance our abilities to better serve our customers throughout Europe,” said Ernst. “This will greatly shorten our lead-times as compared to products manufactured outside of Europe, opening up new opportunities for additional growth and flexibility throughout the world. We welcome the AS Rollen team to Colson Group.”

Mr. Schulte will remain general manager of the facility and team, working closely with Ernst and other Colson Group leaders to leverage its capabilities to further advance the company’s global supply chain. The facility is ISO 9001:2015 certified and utilizes state-of-the-art machinery to ensure the highest quality caster is consistently manufactured. Capabilities include: injection molding, automated/semi-automated assembly, and in-house testing. For more information about AS Rollen, you can visit https://as-rollen.de/.

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About Colson Group:
Colson Group, the global leader in caster and wheel products, creates and drives solutions that move lives forward. World renowned brands provide specialized mobility for every industry and market. A leading product portfolio and proprietary global value chain delivery unparalleled efficiencies and support. With over 1,600 employees across 30 global facilities, Colson Group is committed to its customers’ success, ensuring proper products are selected or designed from the start, and always keeping the end-users’ safety, efficiency, and happiness in mind.

MEDCASTER ATTENDING THE 105TH RSNA SCIENTIFIC ASSEMBLY AND ANNUAL MEETING

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MedCaster will be ready to solve all of your mobility needs at the upcoming 105th RSNA Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, December 1st – 6th 2019 at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. If you are attending come see us at booth #3271 to discuss solutions to make your products quieter, cleaner, and easier to move. MedCaster, a medical brand of Colson Group, designs its products with both patient and operator in mind, continuously working to enhance the mobility of medical applications around the world.

About RSNA: at RSNA 2019, you will get hands-on experience with cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), 3D printing and virtual reality. Dive into the latest research, enhance your skills at over 400 educational courses, and join 50,000 attendees here to meet the leaders shaping tomorrow.

The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) is a non-profit organization with over 54,000 members from 136 countries around the world.
Focused on providing high-quality educational resources, including continuing education credits toward physicians’ certification maintenance, host the world’s largest radiology conference and publish two top peer-reviewed journals: Radiology and RadioGraphics.

RSNA is dedicated to building the future of our profession, whether that’s through their Research & Education Foundation, which has funded $60 million in grants since its inception, or with solutions to support standards development or educational outreach to low-resource nations.

https://www.rsna.org/annual-meeting

About Colson Group: Colson Group, the global leader in caster and wheel products, creates and drives solutions that move lives forward. World renowned brands provide specialized mobility for every industry and market. A leading product portfolio and proprietary global value chain delivery unparalleled efficiencies and support. With over 1,600 employees across 25 global facilities, Colson Group is committed to its customers’ success, ensuring proper products are selected or designed from the start, and always keeping the end-users’ safety, efficiency, and happiness in mind.

Colson Group Introduces New Global Corporate Identity

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Positioning Captures Dedication to Customer Centered Solutions

OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL., October, 18, 2019—Colson Group, a global caster and wheel product company, unveiled a new corporate identity as the company continues its growth and transformation. Summarized by the tag, “Rolling at the Speed of Life,” the latest positioning was crafted to highlight the role that the organization plays in the lives of those who use their products.

“We are a solutions provider,” said Colson Group CEO Tom Blashill. “Every interaction with our customer matters. Yes, we manufacture and ship many casters, but we also create solutions that move lives and businesses forward. For example, when we create a product solution that allows a nurse to push a cart down a hallway quietly, efficiently and safely, we have done our job.”

As the largest manufacturer and distributor in the business, Colson Group operates across myriad industries to help businesses and workers move heavy machinery, delicate technology equipment, and many other solutions each day.

Blashill notes that the breadth of industry coverage at Colson Group was also a motivating factor behind the brand positioning.

“Each day of our lives has its unique mobility challenges. We have to think about ergonomics, efficiency, comfort, and safety,” he said. “We develop and engineer solutions for every industry. From your local supermarket to hospital, to the facilities that build our cars and planes, Colson Group keeps industry moving, businesses more efficient, and people happier and safer.”

Colson Group is comprised of category leading brands such as Colson, Albion, Shepherd, Jarvis, MedCaster, Revvo, and Pemco. By shipping over 50 million products across the world annually, the company sees the position as an opportunity for global messaging consistency. As CEO Blashill put it, “When someone in Europe, the U.S., or South America asks who is Colson Group, we want to have an answer. What we tell people is that Colson Group is rolling at the speed of life.”

Colson Group’s new identity will be rolled out globally throughout November 2019. A new video capturing the new identity can be found on Colson Group’s homepage (www.colsongroup.com).

About Colson Group:
Colson Group, the global leader in caster and wheel products, creates and drives solutions that move lives forward. World renowned brands provide specialized mobility for every industry and market. A leading product portfolio and proprietary global value chain delivery unparalleled efficiencies and support. With over 1,600 employees across 25 global facilities, Colson Group is committed to its customers’ success, ensuring proper products are selected or designed from the start, and always keeping the end-users’ safety, efficiency, and happiness in mind.

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