MechCan is a proudly Canadian partner to and acquiror of HVAC, plumbing and electrical contractors across the country. Our mission is to help local, family-run residential skilled trades contractors remain Canadian and thrive. We fundamentally believe there is a place for contractors that do things the right way, by providing the best service to their communities at a fair price.
MechCan completed its first acquisition in early 2022 and has done 7 transactions in its first two years. Our founders have been investing in and supporting small and medium sized businesses for over a decade. We are most proud of the shared services team we have assembled, which has hundreds of years of combined experience in the residential skilled trades. Many of our team members were once owner-operators of HVAC, plumbing or electrical contracting businesses that sold to private equity firms (before MechCan was founded) who now know there is a better way – the MechCan way!
MechCan’s funding comes from our founders and a small network of high-net-worth individuals, including Canadian business leaders that have had success in the trades and other industries. There is no American private equity fund involved. Most importantly, we have the money to buy your business.
We are missionaries, not mercenaries. To that end, MechCan is supported by a permanent equity vehicle so there is no pressure to sell the business on a typical private equity 3-5 year timeline (or on any timeline for that matter). Most importantly, when you are talking to MechCan’s founders, you are talking to the decision makers and your partners going forward. Recently, there has been a lot of turnover at the top of our industry at private equity-backed companies across North America. With MechCan, there is no guy in a fancy suit sitting in New York or California, who is really calling the shots.
We do what we say we are going to do, and we are 100% referenceable.
MechCan considers both partnership and full buyout transactions. In partnership transactions, MechCan purchases a controlling interest, typically 60-80%. We work with our new partners to grow the newly acquired business. We know that we can grow the business based on the post-transaction results across our family of brands. Our Canadian shared services team, with over a hundred years of combined experience in the industry, exists to make our partners lives easier and help them take their business to the next level. Ultimately, the goal is that, after a few years, the retained stake is worth as much or more than the controlling stake that was initially sold to MechCan.
We attempt to move quickly but respect that owner-operators have a business to run. While we will move at your pace, the time from initial contact to closing can be as quick as 60 days. There are many parties involved in getting a transaction done, we promise to never be the hold up.
We pay market value for healthy business. We will determine a price based on financial and operational factors, including revenue mix, profitability, technician capability, staff retention, fleet quality, consistency of financial performance, and other key performance indicators.
We onboard all your key people and support their further training and development. We actively seek to help with management transitions.
We are building a family of local brands throughout Canada. We partner with companies that have a strong reputation in their local market and therefore generally retain their brand. You have worked hard over years to build your brand, why eliminate that?
The first question we will ask when the transaction is complete, is ‘How can we help?’ Our shared services team exists to alleviate the headaches of running a contracting business by providing the best in operations, marketing, accounting, finance, and HR support. We offer our partners access to these shared services to support their company and expedite value generation. MechCan’s team will work with anyone within your company, from technical field staff to inside administration functions right through to advising company leadership.
Please feel free to e-mail our Co-Founder, Spencer Ross, at sr@mechcan.ca or leave us a note through the Talk to Us page.