Stonecourt Capital’s Alpenglow Rail acquires VIP Rail

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By Ted Liu

Alpenglow Rail LLC, a portfolio company of Stonecourt Capital, has acquired Sarnia, Ontario based VIP Rail LLC from owners Ross H. McEachran and Jon McEachran. Financial terms were not disclosed.

VIP Rail is a short line rail business located in Sarnia, Ontario’s chemical valley, with strategic access to key U.S. populations and major Quebec and Ontario markets including Toronto and Montreal. The business’ service offerings include switching, transloading, railcar storage, railcar inspection, cleaning, and repair, warehousing and trucking.

“I am excited about the opportunity to bring VIP Rail to the next level by leveraging Alpenglow’s growth expertise,” said Jon McEachran, President of VIP Rail. “VIP Rail has been approached by many companies over the years, but we felt Alpenglow was uniquely suited to be both creative on this complicated transaction and an excellent partner in the growth of the company.”

Rich Montgomery, CEO at Alpenglow, commented “We are pleased to partner with Jon and the team at VIP Rail to continue to build on their excellent customer service and innovative solutions. The strategic placement of their assets and the tremendous growth opportunity for the business made this a natural platform investment for Alpenglow Rail.”

“We are thrilled to have completed this platform transaction,” said Jaime Buehl-Reichard, co-Founder and Partner at Stonecourt Capital. “Together with the Alpenglow Rail team, we are excited to build on the opportunities we see in the freight rail industry.”

Denver, Colorado based Alpenglow Rail develops and manages short line rail businesses and related transportation assets across North America. The company was founded by railroad executives Rich Montgomery, Darcy Brede, Henning von Kalm and Josh Huster.

Alpenglow Rail is actively seeking acquisitions of and partnerships with short line railroads and related transportation businesses.

Founded by Lance Hirt and Jaime Buehl-Reichard, in partnership with David Lumpkins and Nathan Ticatch of PetroLogistics Company LLC, New York based Stonecourt Capital is focused on investing in the transformational growth of middle-market companies in the logistics, industrial services and petrochemicals industries. The firm typically invests $50 to $300 million in each of its portfolio companies.

photo credit: VIP Rail