Renew Lab Partners, based in Sandy Springs, Georgia, acquired Professional Testing Laboratory (PTL), based in Dalton, Georgia, on September 1, 2023.
PTL, a third-party testing facility, was established in 1988 in Dalton, Georgia. Its seven laboratory departments test a spectrum of flooring products, including underlayments, fibers, fabrics, laminate flooring, wood and resilient flooring.
Renew’s investment in PTL will allow the company to maintain its current testing of floor coverings and textiles and expand into ceramic tile testing with an eye on the retail sector.
“With our world class testing expertise and brand recognition in these flooring related spaces, we will be focusing even more investments into growing our staff, adding new equipment, rolling out new technology and seeking additional space,” said Jon Peterson, founder and managing partner, Renew Lab Partners. “We do believe there are opportunities to expand into the retail sector further with new and existing big box retailers, focusing on private brand benchmarking, merchant driven product line review testing, and PPT, across certain new product categories.”
In addition to his role with Renew, Peterson will also assume the role as president of PTL. He is an owner/operator with over two decades of experience in the testing, inspection, certification and compliance (TICC) space with companies, including 4th Strand, Intertek, Energy Assurance, Element and COLDfire Technology.
Lee Phillips will maintain his current role as lab director and feels the partnership is a move in the right direction, “The new partnership that’s taking over will unleash the potential that we’ve always known we’ve had to serve as many industries as possible going forward.”
According to Peterson, the partnership provides Renew with an investment opportunity to secure “world class talent, upon which we can continue to leverage to serve our customers.”
Renew invests in proven management teams and engineers focused in the TICC space who are looking for options to exit or to scale their business. The firm’s first TICC platform investment under Renew Partners, LLC (an affiliated company) was in Energy Assurance, a lithium-ion battery testing lab, according to Peterson.
“Our existing flooring and textile customers have been excited to hear that PTL is willing and able to invest alongside them going forward to help them accelerate their new product innovation, answer those difficult technical questions and to continue to provide essential certification testing,” Peterson added.
For more acquisition news, click here.