Facing a surge in demand for its products over the last couple of years, Rick Hughes saw a need to significantly expand his business.
Hughes’ Montague-based MasterTag Inc. exclusively supplies the horticulture industry with printed labels and tags for plants. As more people took to their gardens during the COVID-19 pandemic, sales at greenhouse and home and garden centers rose, which spelled high demand for tags.
The sale of MasterTag was selected as the manufacturing deal of the year for MiBiz’s 2022 M&A Deals & Dealmakers Awards.
Avery Products was a familiar name even before the sale of the company. Hughes said that Avery Products and CCL had been eyeing MasterTag for quite some time.
“They had called like every year for a number of years,” he said. “I just never answered the call. I took the name down, but I just wasn’t in position to sell.”
The name popped back on the radar when Hughes and the MasterTag team worked with Grand Rapids-based investment banking firm Charter Capital Partners to find a suitable buyer for the company with strong roots in Montague. The two parties worked to narrow down a list of potential buyers to around a half dozen. Read more