We are pleased to share the sale of our client Accent Landscape Contractors, Inc. to Accent’s Employees, through the assistance of Apis & Heritage Capital Partners. The acquisition closed May 16, 2022.

Accent Landscape Contractors (Accent) has been engaged in commercial landscaping and irrigation construction work in El Paso, Texas, since 1979. In 2005, the Company formed Accent Maintenance as an outgrowth of client requests to maintain their landscape investments. Over the past 40+ years, Accent has earned an excellent reputation with its clients and has developed professional relationships with many prominent designers, developers, and general contractors. Accent is the largest commercial landscape contractor in El Paso with the bonding capacity to bid on large-scale private sector and public works projects.

Apis & Heritage Capital Partners (A&H), located in Washington, DC is a mezzanine debt private equity fund that buys closely held businesses with significant workforces of color from founders who want a return on their life’s work and who also care about their legacy, A&H then converts those companies into 100% employee-owned businesses. 

A&H provides support and training to the companies to create an engaged and empowered workforce and enlightened management team. Data is clear that when employees feel engaged, then productivity and profitability increase, staff turnover decreases, and overall, the firms outperform their peers. 

A&H seeks companies with at least $1 million in EBITDA and with 40 employees or more, where at least one-third of the workforce are people of color. A&H focuses on essential service sectors such as landscaping, plumbing, HVAC, food processing, commercial cleaning, healthcare, and transportation, and its geographic scope is nationwide.

Generational Equity Executive Managing Director of M&A – Western Region, Stephen Crisham, and his team, led by Sr. Managing Director – Western Region, Lori Galloway, closed the transaction. Senior Managing Director, Terry Stidham, established the initial relationship with ALC.

“Accent was the perfect target for A&H because it had a dominant market position, a large workforce of color, and a strong management team,” said Galloway. 

Galloway added, “Accent’s founder and owner was interested in the ESOP model because he had several long-term employees who had helped him run the business and he wanted to reward their loyalty. The founder can now retire and be confident his employees will continue Accent’s legacy through employee ownership.”