Founded by Sam Wilkins in 1989 and billing itself as “the nation’s largest residential concrete services franchisor,” Sam the Concrete Man has more than 80 units in 30 states.
When Sam the Concrete Man went to market about nine months ago, the interest from investors in acquiring the Denver-based home services brand was overwhelming.
“There were over 120 interested parties in our business and out of that 120 I would say we ended up having about a dozen or so of them come into town and sit down with us,” said CEO Todd Stewart. “In the end, we ended up going with Eagle Merchant (Partners) because they understand franchising and they’ve had a lot of success scaling brands.”
Eagle Merchant’s acquisition of Sam the Concrete Man for an undisclosed amount sets up the Denver-based residential concrete services company on a new growth path. Founded by Sam Wilkins in 1989 and billing itself as “the nation’s largest residential concrete services franchisor,” it has more than 80 units in 30 states.
CEO Todd Stewart purchased Sam the Concrete Man in 2007.
“What really attracted us to Eagle Merchant was they’re actually an operator of franchises of other brands. They understand the trials and tribulations and the working parts of franchising at the franchisor level and at the franchisee level as well,” he said.
Sam the Concrete Man, which Stewart purchased in 2007, ended last year with $44.4 million in sales and 99 units. Its average unit volume is about $995,000, according to its franchise disclosure document, which lists its initial investment range between $92,149 and $145,993.
“There were a lot of things that we liked about SamCo starting with the fact that they are a successful franchisor in the home services space specializing in concrete which is, according to our data, a $30 billon market that is still very fragmented,” said Zack Taylor, a partner at Atlanta-based Eagle Merchant.
Zack Taylor is a principal at Eagle Merchant Partners.
“The other thing that was really attractive to us about SamCo was the level of service they provide their franchisees. They do the vast majority of marketing, lead generation and scheduling estimates which allows their operators to basically just show up for jobs and do the work,” he said.
Since its founding in 2006, Eagle Merchant has invested in franchisors and franchisees across various service industries including Chicken Salad Chick, Code Ninjas and Enviro-Master.
The firm’s portfolio includes sister brands AmeriSpec Inspection Services and Furniture Medic and Renew Medic under TCB Franchising and Impact Home Services, a provider of garage, electric and plumbing services for Precision Door Service, Mr. Electric and Mr. Rooter Plumbing within the Neighborly system. It’s also an investor in consumer brands Eskola Roofing and Waterproofing and Puget Collision.
In 2016, Eagle Merchant and JLM Financial Partners created United PF Partners and became the largest Planet Fitness franchisee group. Along with Chicken Salad Chick, the firm exited United PF about five years ago.
“Eagle Merchant’s track record of working with and growing franchises is very impressive,” said Steward. “Their hands-off approach will allow us to continue to execute with the right vision and strategy moving forward and grow the brand at a much faster pace.”
Stewart remains at the helm of the company and is an equity holder while retaining his executive staff.
One of Eagle Merchant’s plans, said Taylor, is to expand Sam the Concrete Man’s revenue model. He said his firm sees potential to grow the business with ongoing commercial projects and contracts.
“The vast majority of their work is repair and replace the concrete for driveways, patios and walkways for homes,” Taylor said. “They’ve done really well with that, but we really want to explore adding more services to the model with maintenance work and going after large commercial work.”
Taylor said the firm believes there’s enough white space available in the concrete repair market to grow Sam the Concrete Man to 600 or more locations over the next five years.
“In the end, we want to make the business more profitable on the franchisee level and the way to do that is increase the AUVs and increase the margins. We see enormous potential to do that with SamCo which leverages a subcontractor service structure supported by a centralized call center,” Taylor said.
Meanwhile, Stewart is excited about his company’s future with its new majority stake partner.
“We did a detailed analysis with them and realized that we’re about 20 percent saturation of the total market in the United States and Canada,” Stewart said. “Once we kind of mapped that out we realized the potential for enormous growth.”