OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL – October 18, 2023 – Prairie Capital Advisors, Inc. (“Prairie”) is pleased to announce that Norlen, Inc. (“Norlen” or the “Company”) has been acquired by Ryerson Holding Corp. (“Ryerson”). Prairie acted as exclusive financial advisor in this transaction to Norlen and its shareholders and was led by Terry Bressler and Dan DeLap of Prairie. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded as a two-person tool and die shop in 1964, Norlen, Inc., based in Schofield, Wisconsin, has grown to become a full-service metal fabricator offering extensive value-added metal manufacturing services, including engineering, prototyping, forming & fabrication, assembly, and finishing. Norlen has built an industry-wide reputation for producing high quality metal parts and providing world-class service while serving a highly diverse customer base across the fire protection, agricultural, HVAC, and defense industries.

Ryerson is a Chicago-based network of warehouses, service centers and facilities that have both the capability and inventory to service any metal need. Since 1842, they have been dedicated to quality, service and convenience. Ryerson looks forward to growing their business in the Midwest by strengthening their service centers by greater in-house fabrication offerings for customers.

Co-owner of Norlen, Inc., Corey Suthers shared, “My family and our management team have built a strong metal fabrication business. The Prairie team helped us refine our goals and objectives as a seller and achieve the appropriate reward for building our business.”

“It was a pleasure working with the team from Prairie Capital Advisors throughout the entire process. Their experience and expertise kept us on track and allowed us to reach our goal,” says David Henrich, Controller of Norlen, Inc.

Prairie continues to build upon its experience in advising businesses through the significant and important milestone of ownership transition. “We have a wealth of experience in the metal forming space and the Norlen deal was right over the plate for us. We track deals in this area and publish the Prairie Industry Perspective for Metal Forming to share our expertise with our clients and referral network. The Norlen shareholders built a valuable business over the years and it was our aim, through this sale process, to see that they were appropriately rewarded for their successful efforts,” shared Terry Bressler, Managing Director at Prairie.

Dan DeLap, Vice President at Prairie added, “This transaction represents another successful engagement completed by Prairie’s Investment Banking group and further demonstrates our dedication to profitable outcomes for family-owned businesses.”

About Prairie Capital Advisors

Prairie is a leading financial advisory firm specializing in creating and executing ownership transition strategies for middle-market companies nationwide. In 2022, Prairie was named ESOP Investment Bank of the Year by M&A Atlas. For more information, visit www.prairiecap.com.

Media Contact
Wendy Gugora, Director of Marketing
Prairie Capital Advisors, Inc.
630.413.5574
wgugora@prairiecap.com