PARIC Holdings, a family-owned, St. Louis-based construction and building development platform, seeks to acquire MillerKnoll dealers throughout the Midwest on its way to being a national leader in the segment, said Matt Quinn, CEO of I3 Group, the company’s commercial furniture division.

Already the largest MillerKnoll dealer in the Midwest and one of the largest in North America with revenue of USD 350m, I3 Group will continue to pursue acquisitions to support an aggressive growth model over the next three-to-five years,” the executive told Mergermarket. It projects sales could reach about USD 450m over that time frame, he added.

Ideal targets will be family-owned dealers seeking exits, primarily those with USD 25m to USD 100m in revenue. These can sell for as little as 2-3x EBITDA up to 10x, he said, based on size, location, and whether the business only sells furniture or also offers office design, interior walls and partitions, audio-visual and other capabilities for the commercial and office segment.

Aside from MillerKnoll dealers, I3 Group could acquire adjacent businesses. The modern workplace is comprised of in-office, at-home and on the road settings, so these areas might include building security, access control, interior/exterior cameras, and workplace innovation tools, he said.

I3 Group consists of three MillerKnoll dealers acquired since 2022 – Chicago-based Interior Investments (acquired in 2022); Plymouth, Minnesota-based Intereum (2023); and Chicago-based Corporate Concepts (2024).

Office furniture maker Herman Miller acquired rival Knoll in 2021, which set off a merger frenzy among dealers in metro areas around the country, he said.

Because MillerKnoll contractual agreements prohibit its dealers from selling or acquiring competitors Steelcase and Haworth, the targets are limited to MillerKnoll and sellers of open-line furniture brands which can be sold by any type of dealer, Quinn said.

It is seeking acquisitions in its current states, which include Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri, but also Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, North Dakota and South Dakota.

PARIC identifies its own targets but also gets approaches from sell-side bankers and brokers, Quinn said. “We haven’t retained a firm to find targets; we haven’t had to.” Deals are financed through a combination of PARIC’s family office owners, bank debt and sometimes earnouts, he said.

Entrepreneurs Paul McKee Jr. and Richard Jordan established PARIC (a combination of their first names) in 1979 as an engineering and construction company. Still owned by the McKee family, PARIC has in recent years diversified into agricultural construction, insurance and supply chain, with commercial furniture, workplace design and office technology being the most recent sectors, said Quinn. PARIC has no near-term plans to sell assets, he said when asked.

Today, “I3 is the most aggressive growth-oriented part of PARIC Holdings,” he said, in part because COVID-19 and the rise of remote work have altered the office furniture landscape and prompted some dealers to exit.

“Agile dealers who can invest in new ways of work will survive and flourish; others will not.”

Other major MillerKnoll dealers in North America include Boston-based Creative Office Resources and Calgary-based Contemporary Office Interiors, he said.