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AeroAggregates of North America closes on $24 million growth equity investment from Valterra Partners to fund expansion including two new facilities in New England and the Southeast

EDDYSTONE, Pennsylvania – (January 28, 2020) – AeroAggregates of North America (“Aero” or the “Company”), a manufacturer of ultra‐lightweight foamed glass aggregate (“FGA”) utilized primarily in the infrastructure, construction and geotechnical engineering industries, has closed on a $24 million growth equity investment from Valterra Partners LLC (“Valterra”), a New York‐based private equity firm. The Company has announced that the proceeds from the transaction will be used to expand its existing facility in Eddystone, Pennsylvania as well as to fund the construction of two additional facilities in New England and the Southeast.

Based in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, Aero is North America’s only vertically‐integrated manufacturer of ultra‐lightweight, closed cell FGA. Aero’s products are manufactured in the USA from 100% recycled curbside glass, with each kiln saving more than 140 million bottles from landfill annually. Founded in 2012 by CEO Archie Filshill Ph.D., Aero is a leading provider of ultra‐lightweight material to some of the largest contractors and engineering firms in the country. Aero has been approved by the Federal Highway Administration as well as by the Departments of Transportation for numerous states following years of rigorous testing and successful projects at the county, state and federal level. Aero is proud to be a growing, US‐based manufacturer, providing a world‐class product and creating manufacturing jobs in its local markets.

Archie Filshill, Chief Executive Officer at Aero commented, “Our partnership with Valterra, which has a long track record supporting founder‐led businesses, provides Aero with a unique opportunity to accelerate its growth trajectory. In the coming years, we plan to continue to build‐out our intellectual property portfolio, manufacturing operations and distribution platform as well as to expand Aero’s product offering to new industry verticals where we believe foamed glass has unique and innovative applications. We are looking forward to opening our new facilities in New England and the Southeast over the next 12 months, allowing us to service a broader set of customers and end markets.”

Scott Macintosh, a Managing Partner at Valterra added, “Archie and the outstanding team at Aero have done an exceptional job building their customer relationships and proprietary production process. With this investment, we hope to continue the Company’s growth trajectory and to firmly establish Aero as the premier provider of FGA in North America. We have developed an excellent partnership with the Aero team and are looking forward to working together to expand the Company’s footprint across North America and beyond.”

ABOUT AEROAGGREGATES OF NORTH AMERICA

Based in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, AeroAggregates of North America is a vertically‐integrated manufacturer of ultra‐lightweight, closed cell foamed glass aggregate (“FGA”) used in the construction and geotechnical engineering industries. Its products, manufactured out of 100% recycled curbside glass, provide a low‐cost and sustainable solution for lightweight construction amidst increasingly stringent design and constructability requirements. Today’s civil engineering challenges include construction on soft soils, lateral load reduction for retaining walls and structures, insulating subgrade and backfill and the protection of underground utilities. Aero’s products provide an answer to these challenges and more by supplying an ultra‐lightweight material that is insulating, free‐draining, nonabsorbent, non‐combustible, and resistant to chemicals, rot and acid. For more information, please visit www.aeroaggregates.com.

I never met the man, but it seems everyone who did praised his personality before speaking of his work.

Christensen attended the 2014 SAP SAPPHiRE NOW conference in Orlando, were he had a discussion with Hasso Plattner concerning in-memory software.  Plattner said, “SAP is the model candidate for the Innovator’s Dilemma; I see the Dilemma everywhere.”

He also was in town to address Phily’s Arts & Business Council at least twice, the last time less than a year ago. I would be interested in knowing if anyone can remember other occasions when he came to Philly.

Tom Peters probably wrote the most influential business management book of the 1980s, In Search of Excellence (1982). It was simplistic in a sense, and some execs simplified it even more than was intended. “Paralysis by Analysis”was the stated evil; American business over-analyzed things to death and became afraid to act. There was truth to that, no doubt, compared at the time to Japanese business that seemed to be always striving for continuous operational improvement. But I recall some execs reacting to the book by throwing out tons of reports, saying they weren’t needed anymore. There was almost an anti-intellectual , anti-quantitative nature to it.

Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997) was not a reaction to Peter’s work, but in some ways challenged it. Peters was keen on customer focus, but Christensen argued that the challenge was not to only to focus on existing customers, but non-customers segments with similar needs. Dilemma provided an important analytical framework for analyzing product lifecycles that didn’t formerly exist before. The Boston Consulting Group’s growth/share matrix, considered a major advance in strategic thinking at the time, was so limiting. Christensen must have realized that when he worked there.

Christensen was also a pretty good basketball player at BYU, and a Rhodes Scholar.

A few years back, every press release or businesss plan I saw for a startup claimed it was a disruptor, so the model was a bit overused. But at least it made people think.