Deals

HIG buys fastest-growing Utah company

The Miami private equity firm has acquired majority interests in two scrapbooking companies, including Die Cuts with a View, the fastest-growing private company in Utah.

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HIG Capital, the Miami-based private equity firm, announced that it has gained a majority interest in two Utah-based scrapbooking companies: Provo-based Die Cuts with a View, called the fastest-growing private company in the state last year, and Richfield-based Pressed Petals.

They will be combined to form a new company, DCWV. Mike Hill, the co-founder of Die Cuts with a View in 1995, is CEO of the new company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

There has been a great deal of investment activity in the scrapbooking sector in the past year. Chicago private equity firm GTCR Golder Rauner bought New Jersey scrapbooking accessory company EK Success last December, and quickly inked a related licensing and manufacturing deal with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia the next month. Advent International acquired Peterson Partners’ Making Memories last summer. The crafts sector as a whole is a $33 billion (€26 billion) industry, with scrapbooking accounting for some $2.6 billion (€2 billion) alone.

Scrapbooking is especially big business in Utah, particularly among members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, which encourages its members to keep extensive family histories. As a result, Die Cuts with a View was named the fastest-growing private company in Utah in October 2005 by Inc. magazine, and the 70th fastest-growing company nationwide.