Interstate Acquires Southwest Products

Purchase adds 90 employees and a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility

In late July, Interstate completed the purchase of Southwest Products (SWP) based in Arizona. The deal represents important strategic growth for Interstate Companies, adding over 90 new employees and establishing Interstate’s presence in the Southwestern U.S. The purchase roughly doubles Interstate’s throughput in final stage manufacturing.

Southwest Products is a leading manufacturer of quality service vehicles for many applications and industries. The company has over 60 years of manufacturing experience and a state-of-the-art 176,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Surprise, Arizona, that houses one of the largest inventories of service trucks in the U.S. Their engineering team draws on decades of experience to build uncompromising fuel & lube and mechanics trucks as well as customized crane truck solutions. They supply world-class service vehicles to clients across North America and their innovative product lines enhance the way that job sites operate.

“Southwest Products is an outstanding fit for our company. You don’t often find companies this well aligned in culture and outlook,” said Travis Penrod, Interstate CEO. “They have some amazing employees and we’re thrilled to add them to our team. We know SWP by their excellent reputation, and also from direct experience. We have been a customer of theirs for years.”
The SWP acquisition adds a mix of sales, assembly, manufacturing, engineering, and fabrication professionals and deepens Interstate’s core skills in final stage manufacturing while broadening its range of product offerings.
“We are very excited about the geographic market, product lines, and customers that SWP works with today,” said Aaron Johansen, VP of Corporate Operations, who co-led due diligence with Interstate CFO, Larry Schwartz. “We’re equally excited about the opportunities we can bring to SWP (and vice versa) by leveraging our existing final stage manufacturing operation.”

The SWP brand carries great value and recognition with customers across the U.S. Currently, SWP’s final stage products are distributed through a talented sales team and strong partnerships with dealers. This mixed approach has served SWP’s customers very well in the past, and that’s where Interstate intends to maintain the focus going forward.

“While the SWP acquisition adds just a single location in Arizona,” said Aaron, “this business is poised to make an outsized impact through their partnerships with dealers, service partners, and our other facilities. We have known the leadership behind SWP for many years and our respect for how they operate and interact professionally has only grown during that time.”

Representatives for Yaculta Companies, which previously owned and managed SWP, praised the deal and the positive outlook for SWP under the management of Interstate.

“The shareholders and management of Yaculta Companies are very proud of the accomplishments of the SWP commercial truck business”, said Tim Price, Yaculta CEO. “However, we are even more excited about the future of SWP under the stewardship of Interstate Companies. We are confident they are the right people, with the right values, to take SWP to the next level and beyond.”