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Specialty Industrial Flooring Platform

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Cliff Walk Capital
Specialty Industrial Flooring Platform
Confidential
Q3 2026 · Active Diligence
ICS Coatings

A 30-year, founder-built industrial flooring company positioned to lead a regional roll-up strategy.

Cliff Walk Capital is pursuing the acquisition of ICS Coatings as the anchor for a specialty industrial flooring platform in an industry ripe for consolidation.

Select clients Walmart General Electric Delta Airlines Johnson & Johnson CBRE Herb Chambers
Thesis
ICS has spent the last three decades building an industry-leading sales engine in the high-cost-of-failure, mission-critical industrial flooring industry. The company wins through direct relationships with end users rather than competitive bidding, paired with equally deep supply relationships that generate inbound work, create a preferred pricing dynamic, and provide access to the cutting edge of flooring technologies. With a disciplined acquisition strategy, ICS will expand its geographic footprint and become the leader in industrial flooring systems.
Company Snapshot
~$9.0M
Revenue
2022–2025 average
1993
Founded
30+ years in operation
5,000+
Projects
2,000+ customers served

ICS Coatings Overview

ICS (Industrial Concrete Services, Inc., operating as ICS Coatings) is a specialty industrial flooring contractor headquartered in Saco, Maine, serving commercial and industrial facilities across all six New England states. It installs and maintains technical flooring systems, including epoxy and resinous coatings, urethane mortar, polished concrete, and repair and resurfacing, for end markets where the cost of a floor failure is high: food and beverage, aviation, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and warehousing. A significant portion of its sales comes through direct end-user relationships and supplier partnerships built over three decades, rather than competitively bidding on commodity work that requires very little material expertise.

Where ICS sits in the market

Industrial flooring is split between two extremes. At one end sit national installation providers that win by scaling a single application type or industry. At the other end sit small local contractors competing on price with commodity work, such as garage floors and basic warehouse sealing. In between sit the complex, customized systems that facilities like food and beverage plants, aircraft hangars, manufacturing sites, and pharmaceutical labs depend on. In these settings the floor cannot fail, and the contractor has to be a true materials-science consultant with real breadth across systems and end markets. This large, fragmented middle market remains largely unconsolidated, and ICS is well positioned to lead an inorganic geographic expansion strategy as the middle market leader in New England.

Local Price-Takers
Small, sub-scale contractors. Less sophisticated, bid-driven work.
ICS competes here
Technical, Specified, Customized Systems
The complex middle. It demands breadth of knowledge and sophistication across materials and end markets, the work of a true consultant rather than a low bidder.
National Installation Providers
Large players, but typically focused on a single application type or industry at scale.
Less sophisticated
Broadest expertise · largest, least-consolidated opportunity
One trick pony

How ICS wins: material expertise and relationships, not bids

Most of ICS's competitors are either local price takers trying to win up-market on price or national installation providers trying to expand outside of their core market. In both cases, ICS typically wins due to its superior reputation of quality and long-tenured, consultative relationships with the end customer. In many cases where ICS has lost on price, they end up being hired to finish or fix the work performed by the competitor, who lacks the know-how to properly customize or execute the installation of the flooring system required for each facility's unique environment, layout, and function. This material expertise also results in deep relationships with the suppliers who often feed inbound leads to get their products specified in a project. A meaningful share of sales comes through these relationships rather than bidding, an advantage competitors cannot quickly replicate.

The constraint: a sales engine bigger than its geography

ICS's sales engine generates demand throughout New England and beyond, but every crew operates out of a single headquarters in Maine. As a result, the company either turns away work in adjacent states or is forced to absorb the heavy travel costs of mobilizing crews out of Maine. By acquiring trained local crews across the Northeast, ICS can capture the work it now turns away and improve margin on the work it already wins.

The Opportunity

The roll-up strategy

The same fragmentation that defines the lower and middle market is also the acquisition pond. Across New England there are an estimated 30+ realistic acquisition targets, most of them small, owner-operated, and competing almost exclusively on price through bidding. That profile makes them logical acquisition targets. They have trained crews and local footprint but no real sales infrastructure, so they are cheaper to acquire and worth more inside ICS, where they inherit the brand, the supplier access, and a pipeline they could never generate alone. Acquisition conversations are already underway with a few companies.

One sales engine, local crews in every state

ICS Sales Engine brand · suppliers · training · back office Maine5 crewsHeadquartersEstablished Massachusetts1 subcontractedcrewAcquisition target ConnecticutIn conversationwith a targetAcquisition target Rhode IslandFuture capacity New YorkFuture capacity

Inbound work, standards, supplier access, and crew training flow down from the ICS sales engine to local crews in each state.

Why ICS is the ideal anchor

Demand exceeds local capacity. The sales engine already generates more geographic demand than the Saco crews can efficiently serve. Acquisitions monetize existing, turned-away flow rather than requiring new demand.
A strong brand with proven growth. Acquired crews instantly gain ICS's brand, consultative positioning, and supplier access, backed by a track record of quality work and strong growth over the last few decades.
A team in place to scale. ICS's sales force, field crews, and supplier partnerships give the platform a working organization to grow from rather than one still being assembled.
An established, repeat customer base. Thirty years in operation, thousands of completed projects, and longstanding repeat customers across a diverse set of technical end markets, including food and beverage, aviation, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical.
Clear value-creation levers. Known, addressable operating gaps: analytics-based quoting to a target margin, monthly reporting and job costing, gross-profit-based commissions and crew-level incentives, and modernized marketing.
An aligned founder. An industry veteran pursuing a majority sale to bring on a partner rather than a full exit, rolling equity and staying actively involved in driving growth.
A fragmented field of sellers. An estimated 30+ acquisition targets across New England, many owner-operators nearing transition with no succession plan.

Why now

Reshored US manufacturing
Production returning and expanding in the US drives new and retrofit technical floors.
Industrial & data-center construction
Drives demand for high-spec coatings and fast-cure systems.
NE life-sciences & food and beverage
Buildout across the region drives urethane mortar and hygienic systems.
Aging NE floor stock
Creates retrofit and recoat demand independent of new construction.
Tighter VOC & safety regulation
Disadvantages undercapitalized local operators and favors disciplined specialists.
Investment Risks

What has to go right

The four risks below are the ones we are underwriting most closely. The full register is on the Risks & Disclosures tab.

RiskFounder dependency

The founder personally generates a meaningful share of revenue and holds key customer and supplier relationships. The case depends on a successful multi-year transfer of those relationships and institutional knowledge to the broader organization.

RiskSales-force structure

Outside sales is commission-based with independent-contractor status and no employment agreements. Retaining and restructuring this team post-close is a near-term priority and an execution risk.

RiskFinancial reporting maturity

Job costing, monthly reporting, and inventory tracking are underdeveloped. Underwriting relies on financial information that will require remediation, and project-level margin visibility is currently limited.

RiskProject-based revenue

Revenue is project-driven and can be lumpy year to year, with customer concentration that rotates among large accounts rather than recurring contractually. This is a critical risk that will be mitigated through acquisition structure and a highly conservative balance sheet with ample liquidity.

Business Overview

What ICS does, and why it matters.

Company facts

Legal nameIndustrial Concrete Services, Inc. (ICS Coatings)
Headquarters87 Industrial Park Road, Saco, ME 04072
Founded1993 (operating as ICS since 1995)
OwnershipStephen Chrane, sole owner
Employees~35
GeographyAll six New England states
Track record5,000+ projects · 2,000+ customers
Select clientsWalmart, General Electric, Delta Airlines, Johnson & Johnson
Revenue~$9.0M (2022–2025 avg), grown ~324% since 2014

Services

ICS prepares, coats, polishes, and repairs industrial and commercial concrete floors. The work matters most where a floor failure is expensive or non-negotiable: a food plant that must pass USDA washdown, a hangar floor that carries aircraft loads and must control static, a pharma cleanroom, or a manufacturing line that cannot go offline.

ICS is hired to specify the right system for the facility's operating demands (thermal shock, chemicals, moisture, static, hygiene, abrasion) and install it correctly. That consultative core is how it sells, and it is why ICS competes on the quality of the specification rather than on price.

Thermal ShockChemical ExposureMoisture VaporStatic ControlHygiene & WashdownImpact & Abrasion

Thirty years, built step by step

1993
Industrial Concrete Services founded.
1995
Operating as ICS. The Tennant equipment relationship begins.
2008–2014
The long-run revenue base is established.
2014–present
Roughly 324% revenue growth.
~2025
PIP embeds a four-person New England sales team. Dillion Coburn moves into sales. A Controller is hired.
2026
Sole-owner structure in place. Cliff Walk diligence and platform conversations begin.

Geographic footprint

ICS serves New England from its headquarters in Saco, Maine, supported by five crews that mobilize across all states in the region. That broad, single-hub footprint across New England is the platform the growth strategy is designed to build on, where crews located more centrally in each state could significantly improve margin on projects outside of Maine.

  Headquarters · Saco, ME   Serving all six New England states
ME
NH
VT
MA
RI
CT
HQ

Market positioning

ICS sits between a roster of leading materials manufacturers and the diverse end markets it serves. Those supplier partnerships, several of them decades deep, give it preferred materials access, inbound lead flow, and a position that is difficult for smaller, bid-driven competitors to replicate.

Material Suppliers
PIP (Protective Industrial Polymers)
Tennant / IPC Eagle
Sherwin-Williams
Sika
Metzger McGuire · Prosoco
Hempel / NeoGard · White Cap
ICS Coatings
Specify · prepare · install · maintain
End Markets
Aviation & Aerospace
Manufacturing
Food & Beverage
Warehousing & Distribution
Automotive
Pharma · Healthcare · Government

PIP embedded a four-person New England sales team roughly a year ago that develops opportunities directly for ICS. The Tennant relationship dates to 1995.

Products & Services

Five product and service streams.

ICS competes on the complexity of the specification, not on price. Four of its five streams are installed flooring systems, each matched to the operating demands of the floor it goes on; the fifth is a growing floor-care equipment business. Projects typically range from 5,000 to over 1,000,000 square feet.

Pricing shown is the typical New England installed range per square foot, corroborated by third-party market research (May 2026). New England carries a structural pricing premium of roughly 10 to 25% over the national average. Margin ranges are directional and being validated in diligence.

Resinous Coatings
Cementitious Urethane
Polished & Sealed
Repair & Restoration
Equipment Sales

The core, most versatile family. Liquid-applied systems that cure to a hard, seamless surface. End markets include hangars, manufacturing, pharma, food and beverage, automotive, and government.

Epoxy Coatings

$4.00–$10.00 / sq ft
The core resinous system. Water-based for lighter duty and longer working time, or 100% solids for maximum durability in heavy industrial settings. ICS's largest revenue driver.
ManufacturingPharmaFood & BeverageData CenterESD / static-dissipative

Urethane Cement / Mortar

$10.00–$17.00 / sq ft
Trowel-applied cementitious urethane, the highest-spec option for thermal shock, chemical exposure, and steam cleaning. Bonds to damp concrete and is required in most food processing and pharma washdown environments.
Food & BeveragePharmaIndustrial

Polyaspartic Coatings

$6.50–$11.50 / sq ft
Rapid-cure system, return to service in 8 to 24 hours versus 24 to 72 for epoxy. UV-stable and ideal where downtime is expensive. The fastest-growing segment, with real pricing power for schedule-driven clients.
Data CenterPharmaHealthcareRetail

Metallic Epoxy (Decorative)

$6.00–$12.00 / sq ft
Decorative epoxy with a flowing metallic finish. Common in dealer showrooms, retail, and lobbies, riding ICS's direct dealer relationships.
AutomotiveRetailCommercial

Broadcast / Quartz / Flake

$5.00–$9.00 / sq ft
Textured, slip-resistant systems with quartz or vinyl chip broadcast into the surface. Bread-and-butter for the automotive vertical with strong recoat repeat.
AutomotiveFood & BeverageCommercial

MMA (Methyl Methacrylate)

$12.00–$22.00 / sq ft
Extremely fast cure, works below freezing. A premium niche for cold storage and rapid repair, supported by New England's cold-chain demand.
Cold StorageIndustrialGovernment
Why it matters
Resinous systems are the backbone of the industrial flooring market, with epoxy alone representing roughly 44% of North American demand, and they are where material selection matters most. Every facility carries a different chemistry problem: static control in a data center, chemical attack on a manufacturing line, downtime pressure in a retail or healthcare retrofit. Breadth across epoxy, polyaspartic, MMA, and decorative systems is what lets ICS act as a consultant that matches the system to the facility rather than a contractor selling one product, and it is why this family is the company's largest revenue driver.

Broken out for its food and beverage emphasis. ICS markets thermal-shock and washdown-rated, USDA and FDA-compliant systems with integral cove base. These systems overlap with urethane cement and lead with the hygiene story.

Cementitious Urethane Systems

Premium segment
The hygienic flooring standard for food and beverage, commercial kitchens, breweries, and pharma washdown. Thermal-shock and washdown rated, USDA and FDA compliant, with integral cove base for seamless cleaning.
Food & BeverageCommercial KitchensBreweriesPharma Washdown
Why it matters
New England's life-sciences and food-processing buildout supports sustained demand for this premium, compliance-driven segment.

Mechanical grinding and polishing of the existing slab, finished with densifiers and sealers, including self-leveling polished overlays for deteriorated slabs. ICS has developed its own specialized equipment to improve the speed and quality of its polished installations. End markets include warehouses, retail, dealerships, healthcare, education, and aviation.

Polished Concrete

$2.50–$8.00 / sq ft
Multi-pass mechanical grind and polish with progressively finer diamond tooling, finished with densifier and guard. Aviation and aerospace (a large share of revenue) is heavily polished concrete. ICS's proprietary Tennant polishing equipment is a real advantage over undercapitalized locals.
WarehousingRetailHealthcareAviation

Dye & Stain

$2.00–$5.00 / sq ft
Decorative colorants for visual effect at a lower cost than full polishing.
RetailCommercialEducation

Sealers & Densifiers

$0.50–$1.00 / sq ft
Penetrating treatments that reduce porosity, dust, and staining. High-volume and fast, often the entry point for a new relationship.
WarehousingDistributionLight Commercial
Why it matters
Polished concrete is the fastest-growing segment of the market (7 to 8.5% CAGR) and has become the default specification for warehouses, big-box retail, education, and showrooms on lifecycle cost, durability, and design appeal. It is also an equipment- and technique-intensive trade where margin lives in machine productivity and pass discipline, which rewards ICS's proprietary Tennant-based polishing equipment and disadvantages undercapitalized local operators. Aviation, one of ICS's deepest verticals, is heavily polished concrete.

The front door to the 65 to 75% retrofit book. Repair and restoration is how ICS gets into a facility and stays in it.

Surface Preparation

Bundled into scope
Shot blasting, diamond grinding, crack chasing, and line striping to profile and detail the substrate. Surface preparation is the single largest determinant of coating longevity and the strongest source of contractor differentiation, and the capital-intensive fleet behind it is one most new entrants lack.
All verticals

Crack, Joint & Spall Repair

Per linear foot
Route-and-fill of joints, cracks, and spalls. A required pre-treatment and a standalone maintenance scope.
All verticals

Slab Stabilization & Resurfacing

$3.00–$8.00 / sq ft
Cementitious and polymer overlays over deteriorated or uneven concrete. Tied directly to New England's aging floor stock, much of it built before 1990.
All verticals

Moisture Vapor Mitigation

$1.50–$4.00 / sq ft
Vapor-barrier systems for high-humidity slabs prior to coating. Often a required step that prevents adhesion failure.
All verticals

Floor Maintenance & Re-Coat Programs

Recurring
Ongoing re-seal, re-coat, burnishing, and spot-repair cycles on floors ICS has already installed. Labor-heavy and low-material with lower bid risk than new project work — the recurring revenue layer inside the installed base.
All verticalsExisting accounts
Why it matters
Repair and restoration is the entry point to the 65 to 75% of the book that is retrofit work, and New England's floor stock is old, with much of it poured before 1990. Surface preparation, crack repair, and moisture mitigation are not add-ons; they are the science that determines whether the finished floor survives, and they are where inexperienced low bidders fail most visibly. This is also how relationships begin: a repair scope gets ICS into a facility, and the recoat and maintenance cycle keeps it there for decades.

A growing fifth stream beyond installed flooring. ICS co-sells industrial and commercial floor-care equipment into the accounts it already serves.

Floor-Care Equipment Co-Sell (Tennant / IPC Eagle)

Emerging stream
ICS co-sells Tennant (industrial) and IPC Eagle (commercial) floor-care equipment into its existing accounts. ICS is the sales organization, while Tennant and IPC handle delivery, install, training, warranty, and service. It uses trusted relationships already in place, requires no new customer acquisition, and turns ICS into a one-stop flooring and floor-care partner. The Tennant relationship dates to 1995. Management sizes the opportunity at $1.5M to $2.5M of annual sales volume and $300K to $500K of profit at maturity (management estimate, being validated in diligence).
All verticalsExisting accountsRecurring service pull-through
Why it matters
Equipment sales turn a project relationship into a recurring one. ICS monetizes accounts it has already won, with no new customer acquisition cost, while Tennant and IPC Eagle carry delivery, installation, training, warranty, and service. Every machine placed deepens the account, keeps ICS in the building between flooring projects, and positions the company as a one-stop flooring and floor-care partner rather than a one-time contractor.
Team & Organization

A proven operating team, and a partner built for the next chapter.

This transaction is a partnership. ICS brings a roughly thirty-five person organization with decades of tenure, the customer relationships, and the field capability. Cliff Walk Capital brings the capital, the operating discipline, and the acquisition playbook to build on that foundation. The founder stays on, invested and active, and the people below keep running the business they built.

ICS organization

Ownership & Leadership
Stephen Chrane
President & Founder · Owner
Founded ICS and has led it for 30 years. The primary relationship holder across the company's direct end-user accounts. Pursuing a majority sale to bring on a partner and stay active driving growth.
Operations & Administration
Steve Luna
Field Operations Manager
10 years · 18-yr Army National Guard background
Manages field operations, the warehouse, administration, and vendor relationships. The critical operational layer between ownership and the crews.
Erica Bradley
Office Manager · HR · Payroll
24 years
Office operations, payroll, field expense management, and HR. A major holder of institutional knowledge.
Chris Heckley
Controller
1 year
Recent addition building out financial reporting and job costing. The inside hire the operating plan leans on.
Mark Bowie
Equipment & Vehicle Mechanic
24 years
Maintains the equipment fleet and vehicles, with deep knowledge of asset condition.
Sales
Shane Bechtel
Sales Executive
5 years · prior Tennant coatings sales
Drives direct and general-contractor channel sales.
Pat Clarke
Sales Executive
8 years · prior Sherwin-Williams
Drives direct and general-contractor channel sales.
Dillion Coburn
Sales Development
20 years at ICS
Two decades of ICS field and operations experience, moved into sales in 2025 with deep customer knowledge.
Field Operations
Crew Leaders
5 leaders
3 to 15 years
The operational backbone of field delivery.
Field Laborers
20 to 25
1 to 18 years
Skilled finishers and crew.
Master Floors (Tarck Santos)
Subcontractor · 2–3 crews
Middleton, MA
A subcontract relationship that extends ICS's footprint south, and a working example of the platform's "spoke" model.
The Management Company

Cliff Walk Capital

Cliff Walk Capital is a private investment firm based in Newport, Rhode Island. The firm acquires established, family-owned businesses across New England with long operating histories and stable cash flow, often in situations involving owner retirement or growth opportunities requiring an institutional partner. The firm is industry-agnostic but highly selective, prioritizing businesses that provide essential products or services, generate recurring revenue, and are hard to displace because of long-standing customer relationships, technical expertise, and regional presence. ICS fits that profile precisely.

RJ Hall

Founder, Cliff Walk Capital

RJ is a private equity professional with more than seven years of experience sourcing, acquiring, and growing industrial, manufacturing, and distribution businesses, across transactions totaling over $250M in enterprise value. Before founding Cliff Walk Capital, he was at The Watermill Group, a Boston-based lower-middle-market private equity firm targeting global industrial businesses, where he spent over five years. He also worked at North Equity, a firm specializing in AI-powered roll-up strategies.

His experience spans the full investment lifecycle: deal sourcing, financial analysis and diligence, transaction execution, and post-close strategy and operations. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Tufts University, where he was an All-American and co-captain of the baseball team. RJ lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

Customers

A blue-chip, repeat customer base across technical end markets.

ICS has served more than 2,000 customers over its history, from Fortune 500 corporate flight departments to family-owned dealer groups, spread across ten verticals and weighted toward facilities where floor performance is operationally required rather than discretionary. ICS states that more than half of its business in any given year comes from repeat clients. The names below are drawn from ICS's customer records, hangar and dealer logs, the 2026 backlog, and ICS's published client list.

2,000+
Lifetime customers
Across 10 verticals
155
Hangars completed
3.8M sq ft of aviation flooring
75+
Dealership locations
Multi-location auto groups
$5.6M
2026 Backlog
Committed or contracted

Who ICS works for

A sample of named accounts from ICS's records, grouped by relationship type.

CategoryNamed accounts (sample)
Aviation & corporate flightGulfstream, Bombardier, Textron Aviation, Atlantic Aviation, Signature Aviation, Jet Aviation, NetJets, Clay Lacy Aviation, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, JP Morgan, Citigroup, IBM, PepsiCo, American Express, CVS, Liberty Mutual, BETA Technologies
Defense & governmentPratt & Whitney, Sig Sauer, U.S. Army Aviation, Air National Guard, West Point, state readiness centers
Life sciences & healthcareBoston Scientific, Braintree Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb (aviation)
Manufacturing & industrialGeneral Electric, New Balance, Stark Systems
Food & beverageGreen Mountain Coffee, plus commercial kitchen and food & beverage projects in the 2026 backlog
Retail, distribution & propertyWalmart, CBRE, Mardens, Ace Hardware
Automotive dealer groupsHerb Chambers (including Mercedes, Porsche, Lamborghini stores), Balise, Kelly Honda, Darlings, and other multi-location groups
Repeat general contractorsProCon, Consigli, Cianbro, PC Construction, Landry French, Engelberth, CM&B, North Branch, Wright-Ryan

Industry vertical mix

Directional estimates stated by ownership, being validated in diligence.

Aviation / Aerospace
15–20%
Manufacturing
15–20%
Warehousing / Distribution
15–20%
Auto Dealerships / Service
15–20%
Food & Beverage
10–20%
Pharma / Medical
~10%
Commercial
5–10%
Retail
5–10%
Government (Fed & State)
5–10%
Industrial
5–10%

Aviation deep-dive

ICS's hangar log documents 155 hangars totaling roughly 3.8 million square feet, spanning New England, New York, New Jersey, and Florida. The roster runs from regional FBOs to the flight departments of Gulfstream, JP Morgan, Citigroup, IBM, PepsiCo, and United Airlines, plus military work for Army Aviation, the Air National Guard, and West Point. Hangar floors are high-spec (static control, heavy load, foreign-object-debris control) and require periodic recoat, making aviation one of the strongest repeat verticals because maintenance is operationally required, not optional.

Automotive deep-dive

ICS's dealer log documents 75 dealership locations, dominated by multi-location groups: Herb Chambers (historically the largest single account), Balise, Kelly Honda, and Darlings, among others. Dealer groups are high-value relationships: one principal covers many facilities, showroom and service floors recoat on a predictable cycle, and the decision-maker is the owner or facilities lead rather than a general contractor. The 2026 backlog already includes Herb Chambers Porsche and Lamborghini stores.

Three ways into every account

The customer base is built on three reinforcing channels. Direct end-user relationships, where facility owners call ICS first or ask their contractor to spec ICS into the work (the aviation, dealer, and corporate accounts above). Repeat general-contractor relationships, where firms like ProCon, Consigli, Cianbro, and PC Construction spec ICS into their projects year after year; several GC relationships have each generated hundreds of thousands of dollars of annual volume across multiple years of the customer records. And supplier-fed leads, where material suppliers such as PIP bring leads and projects directly to ICS to get their own products specified, a newer channel that is growing as PIP's embedded New England sales team develops opportunities for ICS.

2026 backlog: $5.6M already committed

The 2026 backlog of $5.6M committed or contracted work spans 34 named jobs and reads like the thesis in miniature: Boston Scientific and Braintree Laboratories (life sciences), Gulfstream and Signature Aviation across three states (aviation), two CBRE distribution centers totaling over $1M, Consigli academic work, and multiple ProCon projects. Beyond the committed backlog, the broader 2026 pipeline holds 130+ named accounts. Gross margins on the top 2024 and 2025 jobs ranged from 43% to 66%.

Industry & Tailwinds

A growing market, concentrating in ICS's backyard.

The North American industrial flooring market is in a multi-year structural expansion, and the spending is migrating into exactly the end markets ICS serves: advanced manufacturing, logistics, data centers, life sciences, defense, and food and beverage. The figures below are drawn from a third-party market study prepared in May 2026, which triangulates published research from Grand View Research, Mordor Intelligence, Fortune Business Insights, and MarketsandMarkets alongside CBRE and JLL regional data.

~$2.7B
NA Market 2025
Industrial floor coatings
~$3.7B
NA Market 2030E
~6.5% consensus CAGR
7–8.5%
Polished CAGR
Fastest-growing segment
~44%
Epoxy share
ICS's core system
$70–120M
NE Annual TAM
In-region flooring scope

The 6.5% forecast CAGR is roughly twice the pace of total US nonresidential construction spending, driven by mix shift toward manufacturing, data centers, biopharma, and warehousing, which all carry higher flooring spend per square foot.

Macro demand tailwinds

Four national forces are pushing flooring spend toward the exact systems and end markets ICS serves.

Reshored US manufacturing

$500B+ of announced CHIPS and IRA-anchored capex nationally, with New England capturing share through semiconductors (GlobalFoundries VT), defense, and biopharma.

Fast-cure systems taking share

Polyaspartic systems return floors to service in 8 to 24 hours and command 20 to 40% pricing premiums, and they dominate the retrofit work that defines New England.

Food-safety compliance ratchet

FSMA, USDA, and food-safety certification schemes effectively require seamless washdown-rated flooring. A one-way ratchet into urethane cement, ICS's premium system.

Polished concrete substitution

Lifecycle cost, LEED credits, and design appeal have made polished concrete the default spec for new big-box, distribution, education, and showroom facilities.

Why New England specifically

New England is not the largest region by volume, but it is one of the densest, highest-spec regional markets in the country. Four structural factors:

Concentrated high-spec demand

Greater Boston life sciences, the Connecticut River aerospace and defense corridor, the Groton-Quonset submarine cluster, and the VT/NH semiconductor base all specify above-average flooring scope per square foot.

Aging floor stock

Roughly 60 to 70% of New England's industrial floor area was built before 1990, creating a deep, structural retrofit and recoat market that is more durable than greenfield demand.

Tight industrial real estate

Greater Boston runs 4 to 6% industrial vacancy, among the lowest in the US, supporting rent growth and an ongoing build-to-suit pipeline.

Stricter regulation

All six states sit in the tighter OTC Phase II VOC regime, with Massachusetts stricter still. Compliance discipline disadvantages low-cost, under-trained competitors.

A closer look: demand in ICS's core verticals

A further double-click on the regional trends above: the demand clusters across New England where ICS already plays, and what each means for flooring scope, per the May 2026 market study.

Demand clusterAnchorsFlooring relevance
Defense industrial baseGD Electric Boat ($4.6B+ Groton CT / Quonset RI), Bath Iron Works (ME), Pratt & Whitney (CT), Sikorsky (CT), BAE Systems (NH), Raytheon (MA)Continuous production-floor maintenance and expansion programs; premium pricing with documentation overhead. ICS already serves Pratt & Whitney and Sig Sauer.
Life sciences$25B+ Massachusetts capex pipeline: Eli Lilly and Bristol Myers Squibb (Devens), Moderna, Lonza (NH), plus the CDMO and supplier tailDemanding urethane-cement washdown and cleanroom specs at premium pricing. ICS's 2026 backlog already includes Boston Scientific and Braintree Laboratories.
Warehouse & distributionContinuous modern-bulk pipeline along I-495, I-91, I-93, and I-95An estimated $30 to 50M of New England warehouse flooring scope per year, heavily polished concrete.
Data centersBoston, Worcester, and southern NH campuses ($5B+ collective)ESD and fast-cure coatings; the durable opportunity is recurring recoat in existing campuses.
AviationFBO networks and corporate flight departments across the regionICS's deepest vertical: 155 hangars and 3.8M sq ft completed to date.

Sources: third-party market study (May 2026) in the data room, triangulating Grand View Research, Mordor Intelligence, Fortune Business Insights, MarketsandMarkets, US Census construction data, and CBRE / JLL regional reports.

Competitive Landscape

Three tiers, and a middle no one owns.

As covered in the Executive Summary, the industrial flooring field breaks into three tiers, and the technical, specified middle is the one no one owns. In practice, ICS's most frequent competition is not the nationals. It is the bottom tier reaching up: local, bid-driven operators chasing mid-market work on price without the material expertise it demands. ICS is regularly hired afterward to fix or finish those floors. Click through the three tiers below for an overview of each part of the market and the competitors within it.

Tier 1 · National Providers
Tier 2 · Regional Specialists
Tier 3 · Local Operators

Manufacturer-aligned installers that win by scaling a single application type or industry. Stonhard is the clearest example: the go-to specification for big pharma and large chemical-resistant scopes, deep in that one lane, but slow and expensive on the mid-size, multi-system work that defines ICS's market. These firms rarely beat ICS on its home turf.

StonhardTier 1 · National
RPM International (NYSE: RPM) · National
Strength
The go-to spec for big pharma and large chemical-resistant scopes. OEM spec influence, technical sales, large-project execution.
Where ICS wins
Deep in one lane but slow and expensive on sub-$300K jobs, with thin local mid-market relationships. Parent RPM is an active acquirer, an exit path more than a threat.
Sika Industrial FlooringTier 1 · National
Sika AG · National
Strength
Global supply chain, strong technical support, broad portfolio.
Where ICS wins
Limited local depth and not competitive on fast-turn work. Also an ICS supplier and a historical acquirer of regional contractors.
Dur-A-FlexTier 1 · National
Private · CT-based, strong NE
Strength
Healthcare and education niche, strong NE applicator network.
Where ICS wins
More a manufacturer and distributor than a direct contractor. Competes on materials more than installation.
EP FloorsTier 1 · National
RPM-affiliated network · Multi-regional incl. NE
Strength
Applicator network with Stonhard product access.
Where ICS wins
Franchise model limits local depth. More a threat to the GC channel than to ICS's direct base.
Why it matters
The nationals and their parents (RPM, Sika) are active acquirers of regional flooring contractors, which makes Tier 1 a natural exit path for the platform rather than a day-to-day competitive threat.

Regional specialty contractors, typically $25M to $150M of revenue anchored in one or two states, are where consolidation is accelerating: flooring contractors with clean financials have been transacting steadily since 2021, several with private equity backing. New England's regional bench is thin, which is the opening. This is the tier the platform is built to occupy.

KaloutasTier 2 · Regional
Private · North Andover, MA · 8 offices across New England
Strength
Large regional footprint and workforce, strong GC relationships, and active on the M&A front in industrial flooring. Painting, fireproofing, cleaning, and flooring under one roof.
Where ICS wins
At its core a painting and facility-services generalist trying to be everything to a facility. The flooring work lacks depth, and ICS is regularly brought in to repair Kaloutas floors or beats them head-to-head on technical scopes.
Black Bear Coatings & ConcreteTier 2 · Regional
Private · Leominster, MA · 25+ years · Serves MA, CT, NH, ME
Strength
A genuine seamless-flooring specialist: epoxy, urethane mortar, MMA, moisture mitigation, and polishing for industrial and commercial facilities across New England.
Where ICS wins
The closest pure-play comparable in the region. ICS differentiates on its direct end-user sales engine, aviation and dealer verticals, and supplier-embedded lead flow rather than on capability alone.
Why it matters
The regional tier is the thinnest bench in New England, and it is exactly where the specified, technical middle of the market gets served. Building the region's definitive regional specialist through acquisition is the whole platform thesis.

The local tier is both ICS's most frequent competitor and the acquisition pond. These businesses are typically one to several trained crews with equipment and a home geography, competing almost exclusively on price through bidding. They routinely reach up into the middle market on cheap bids without the material know-how the work demands, and the result is familiar: ICS is often hired afterward to fix or finish floors a low bidder could not execute. ICS's leadership has known many of these operators for decades, worked alongside them, and in several cases already fields inbound interest. The names below are a select, representative sample of an estimated 30+ realistic targets across New England, not an exhaustive list.

Heavy Duty FloorsTier 3 · Priority Target
Family-owned · New Britain, CT · 25+ years
Profile
Strong operators, no external sales force. Concrete polishing, coatings, and industrial repair across CT, NY, MA, NJ, RI.
Fit
Ideal. Fills the Connecticut crew gap, complementary rather than competitive. Early conversations underway.
Donlon IndustriesTier 3 · Watch List
NE (mainly MA)
Profile
Established local, likely GC-reliant.
Fit
Southern NE capacity if crews and relationships are intact.
Aulson CompanyTier 3 · Watch List
MA / NH
Profile
Established local, surface prep plus coatings.
Fit
Similar profile to Donlon.
Pristine ConcreteTier 3 · Watch List
New England
Profile
Polished-concrete focus in a growing segment.
Fit
Adds polishing capacity. ICS's full-service offering is a structural advantage over pure polishers.
Eastern Concrete PolishingTier 3 · Watch List
New England
Profile
Focused regional polishing brand.
Fit
Polishing capacity. No full coating or maintenance scope on its own.
Why it matters
The same operators ICS beats on quality are the ones it will buy: trained crews and local footprint with no sales infrastructure, an estimated 30+ of them concentrated in eastern Massachusetts, the Hartford / Springfield / Worcester corridor, southern New Hampshire, and the Providence / Quonset cluster.
Risks & Disclosures

The risks we are underwriting, openly.

A platform built on relationships and people carries real, knowable risks. We would rather name them plainly and build the partnership around managing them than pretend they do not exist. This is an execution thesis. The point of diligence is to understand each item below and structure the transition to address it.

Most consequential
CriticalKey-person concentration

Stephen personally holds the deepest direct relationships in the company, built over thirty years and largely carried in his own knowledge rather than documented in the organization. A meaningful share of revenue traces back to him. This is the single most consequential item, and the whole thesis is, at its core, a relationship-transfer thesis.

How we manage it: a meaningful, multi-year transition period, warm introductions to every direct account, rollover equity so Stephen stays invested in the outcome, and an active ongoing role driving growth rather than a clean exit.

30–40%
Estimated share of revenue tied to the founder's direct relationships
Directional estimate, being validated in diligence. It is the number that sizes the transition plan.
CriticalSales-force continuity

Two senior sales executives drive a material share of sales but do not have post-close agreements in place. If either were to leave at or after close, ICS would lose meaningful sales coverage. This needs to be resolved up front, not hoped through.

How we manage it: retention plans and formal go-forward agreements as a condition of close.

High
HighSales-team employment structure

The senior salespeople are currently engaged as independent contractors. Formalizing the employment classification and putting clean agreements in place is a standard pre-close item and tied directly to the continuity point above.

How we manage it: formalize classification and agreements as part of the transaction.

HighOperations continuity

Field operations rest heavily on one operations manager, an exposure that grew when the prior operations layer left the company. We need to confirm nothing critical went unowned in that transition and that the operations bench is deep enough on day one.

How we manage it: retention focus on the operations manager and a plan to deepen the operations bench.

HighSubcontractor dependency

A subcontractor relationship (Master Floors) runs two to three dedicated crews and extends ICS's footprint south. The exclusivity and terms are not yet clear. If the relationship is exclusive it is a key asset; if not, it is a dependency to plan around.

How we manage it: confirm contract terms and build a backup-crew plan.

HighRevenue lumpiness & pipeline visibility

The business is project-based with no long-term contracted revenue, and the 2026 pipeline is concentrated in a few large opportunities. Conversion timing is inherently uncertain.

How we manage it: grow recurring maintenance revenue and diversify the base through the platform.

Medium
MediumLabor cost & margin pressure

A tight New England labor market has pushed up craft wages. This is structural, not one-time. The platform's local-crew model partly offsets it by cutting travel.

MediumCrew deployment cost

Serving six states from one Saco headquarters means long-haul mobilization to Connecticut and Rhode Island dilutes margin. This is both a current risk and the exact problem the platform solves.

MediumFinancial reporting maturity

Job costing, monthly reporting, and inventory tracking are still developing, which limits project-level margin visibility. The Controller is the lever, and reporting build-out is an early priority.

MediumInstitutional-knowledge concentration

Two long-tenured administrative and equipment staff hold deep, largely undocumented knowledge. Retention and documentation matter through the transition.

Platform-specific risks

Growth by acquisition introduces its own risks: the capacity of one back office to absorb multiple crews, retaining acquired owners and crews, and protecting the ICS brand by being selective about who joins. These are managed by sequencing deals deliberately and integrating before adding.

Risk to response, at a glance

RiskPrimary response
Key-person concentrationTransition period, warm introductions, rollover equity, ongoing role
Sales-force continuityRetention and formal agreements as a condition of close
Employment structureFormalize classification and agreements
Operations continuityRetention focus and an operations bench plan
Subcontractor dependencyConfirm terms and a backup-crew plan
Revenue lumpinessGrow recurring maintenance and diversify via the platform
Reporting maturityA focused post-close reporting and job-costing build
Disclosures

Important disclosures

This document is confidential and provided for discussion purposes only. It does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or interest in any fund or special purpose vehicle managed by Cliff Walk Capital LLC or any of its affiliates. Any such offer or solicitation will be made only through formal offering documents and in compliance with applicable securities laws.

The information herein is based on preliminary assumptions and estimates and is subject to change without notice. Financial figures are unaudited, reflect management and Cliff Walk normalization adjustments, and remain subject to ongoing diligence. Any return scenarios are hypothetical, illustrative, and are not a projection or guarantee of results. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Prospective investors should conduct their own independent diligence and consult their own legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decision.

Financials

A strong revenue base with operational upside.

ICS is a project-based business, so revenue and earnings move year to year. Revenue peaked near $10M in 2022 and 2023, then softened to roughly $8.3M in 2025. Adjusted EBITDA followed the same path, with 2024 a clear trough before a partial recovery in 2025. Diligence is centered on building a clean view of normalized, go-forward profitability.

Investor materials
The figures below are preliminary and subject to ongoing financial diligence. Adjusted EBITDA reflects management add-backs and Cliff Walk normalization adjustments. The four-year average is used to normalize through the cycle.

Income statement summary

$ in thousands. Adjusted EBITDA basis. 2022–2025 actuals.

Fiscal year2022202320242025’22–’25 Avg
Revenue9,9779,7487,9118,2918,982
Gross profit3,4523,6542,2612,2952,915
Gross margin %34.6%37.5%28.6%27.7%32.5%
Adjusted EBITDA1,1051,296(59)349673
Adj. EBITDA margin %11.1%13.3%(0.7%)4.2%7.5%

Revenue by year

$10.0M
2022
$9.7M
2023
$7.9M
2024
$8.3M
2025

Adjusted EBITDA by year

2022
$1.11M
2023
$1.30M
2024
($59K)
2025
$349K

The 2024 trough and the 2025 recovery are exactly what diligence is sizing. The 2026 internal budget points to roughly $9.5M of revenue and $0.7M of EBITDA.

Financial commentary

  • Project-based, not contractual. Annual swings reflect the timing and size of large jobs. Large-account concentration rotates from year to year, depending on job completion, and the 2026 backlog and pipeline are being closely monitored and diligenced.
  • Margin pressure tied to geography. Gross margin compressed in 2024 and 2025, with the project mix skewed toward work farther from the Saco headquarters. Early analysis points less to labor-rate tightening and more to the travel, lodging, and mobilization costs of serving distant projects from a single Maine hub. This is being sized in diligence, and it is precisely the pressure the platform's local-crew expansion is designed to reverse.
  • Analyzing rework. Project rework is not currently tracked and may be a contributor to the gross margin compression of the last couple of years. A fix under evaluation is crew-level, gross-margin-based performance measurement, creating better incentives and accountability at the crew level.
  • OPEX normalization. We continue to evaluate adjustments within operating expenses related to owner costs and other non-recurring, one-time expenses to build a more normalized view of underlying profitability.
  • Untracked inventory. Materials are often over-ordered and stocked on shelves without being tracked as inventory. Building inventory into job costing and tracking is a clear opportunity: it sharpens project-level margin visibility, provides a truer view of the company's financials, and improves purchasing and operations.
Sources & Uses

A structure built for scale.

The contemplated structure is built around a clean, debt-light opening balance sheet and the founder rolling equity to share in the platform's upside. Figures are redacted in this draft and subject to change as diligence and structure conversations progress.

Investor materials
Illustrative deal structure based on the current working model. No formal valuation, offer, or indication of interest has been submitted. Dollar amounts and percentages are intentionally redacted in this version.
Uses of Capital
Enterprise value (0.00x avg. adj. EBITDA)$0.00M0%
Estimated transaction costs$0.00M0%
Cash to balance sheet$0.00M0%
Total uses$0.00M0%
Sources of Capital
LP equity$0.00M0%
Founder rollover equity$0.00M0%
Debt$0.00M0%
Total sources$0.00M0%

Enterprise value reflects a 0.00x multiple on the normalized four-year-average adjusted EBITDA. All terms are illustrative and subject to diligence and negotiation.

The Ask

Invest with us on the platform.

Cliff Walk Capital is raising equity to acquire ICS Coatings as the anchor of a New England specialty flooring platform, alongside founder rollover. We are bringing on a select group of capital partners for the equity.

Equity raise
$0.0M
Minimum check
$0.0M
Target hold
~6 years
Structure
SPV

How the investment works

Aligned GP economics

No management fees on invested capital; Cliff Walk charges monitoring fees to the company instead. The GP earns carried interest of [  ]% of profits, paid only after investors receive a [  ]% preferred-return hurdle and a full return of capital. Our economics are weighted to performance, not assets gathered.

Direct investment via SPV

You are investing in this specific company through a dedicated special purpose vehicle, not a blind pool. Evergreen structure with no fixed fund life and flexible hold periods, and future add-on acquisitions are executed within the platform you already own.

An unlevered balance sheet that funds growth

With no bank term debt at close, the company's free cash flow is available to self-fund add-on acquisitions. Just as importantly, that untapped debt capacity lets the platform refinance in the future with a debt instrument to acquire additional companies, a core part of the investment strategy.

Use of proceeds

Funds the acquisition, transaction costs, and working capital. Full detail on the Sources & Uses tab.

Illustrative return scenarios

Hypothetical and for discussion only. Based on the current working model across downside, base, and growth cases. Figures are redacted in this version. Not a projection or guarantee of returns.

ScenarioExit multipleMOICGross IRR
Downside0.0x0.0x0%
Base (no growth)0.0x0.0x0%
Growth (platform)0.0x0.0x0%

Interested in learning more?

The deal is pre-LOI and in active diligence. Cliff Walk Capital is beginning to line up financing partners and investors, and would be happy to walk through the opportunity in more detail.

RJ Hall · Founder, Cliff Walk Capital
rj@cliffwalkcapital.co  ·  (401) 999-9907  ·  cliffwalkcapital.co

This overview is confidential and for discussion purposes only. It does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any such offer will be made only through formal offering documents.