Deal Details

Pacon Is Acquired by FILA

Consumer

Pacon, a portfolio company of Mason Wells, sale to FILA

Summary

Pacon Creative Products (“Pacon” or the “Company”) a portfolio company of Mason Wells Buyout Fund III (“Mason Wells”), was acquired by Dixon Ticonderoga, a subsidiary of Fabbrica Italiana Lapis ed Affini S.p.A. (“F.I.L.A.”) (BIT: FILA), for $340 million.

Baird served as the exclusive financial advisor to Pacon Creative Products and Mason Wells on this transaction.

About

Pacon, founded in 1951, is a leading provider of branded arts & crafts products for the school (primarily pre-K-5), retail, and online channels. The Company built its complementary portfolio of brands with a bifurcated strategy of both organic and acquisition growth (having completed 14 acquisitions since 1998 including well-known brands Strathmore®, Carolina Pad™, and Princeton Artist Brush Co.™). The Company has a comprehensive portfolio of over 8,500 SKUs across many categories including classroom papers, arts & crafts, teaching aids, décor, learning games, and fine art materials. Pacon is also the preferred manufacturer of quality specialty paper products. Headquartered in Appleton, Wisconsin, Pacon operates eight production facilities located in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Mason Wells is a leading Midwest-based private equity firm with approximately $1.0 billion in assets under management across its current private equity funds. Mason Wells is currently investing out of Mason Wells Buyout Fund IV, a $615 million fund. Since Mason Wells was formed in 1998, its buyout funds have invested in four specific industry sectors: Consumer Packaged Goods, Outsourced Business Services, Engineered Products & Services, and Packaging Materials & Converting. Mason Wells is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Founded in 1920, F.I.L.A. is a highly consolidated, dynamic and innovative Italian industrial enterprise. F.I.L.A. is an icon of Italian creativity globally through its coloring, drawing, modelling, writing, and painting tools. F.I.L.A. has grown over the last twenty years and has achieved a series of strategic acquisitions, including Italian Adica Pongo, US Dixon Ticonderoga, German LYRA, Mexican Lapiceria Mexicana, the Brazilian Lycin, English Daler-Rowney Lukas, and French Canson. F.I.L.A. operates through 19 production facilities (2 in Italy) and 35 subsidiaries across the globe and employs more than 8,400. F.I.L.A. is headquartered in Milan, Italy.

Consumer

Pacon, a portfolio company of Mason Wells, sale to FILA