Origination

Harrington is a leading national distributor of specialty and engineered industrial process solutions, founded in 1959. Harrington distributes and fabricates mission-critical products that move fluids in corrosive and high-purity process applications. Products include pipes, valves, fittings, tanks, tubing and hose, pumps, filtration, and instrumentation. Bain Capital acquired Harrington in 2023, recognizing its competitive position as a leading national distributor of engineered fluid process and flow control solutions with attractive exposure across a diverse set of end markets.

Opportunity and investment

We identified an opportunity to invest in a leading specialty distribution platform in an attractive market benefiting from secular tailwinds from reshoring, aging infrastructure, environmental regulation, and industrial automation. Harrington’s differentiated value proposition—deep technical expertise, broad product offering, and a customer-centric service model—combined with its strength in high-purity and corrosive applications, positions the company to accelerate growth in a large, fragmented market.

Value creation

Since our acquisition, we have partnered with management to deliver progress across organizational, operational, and commercial excellence initiatives, notably by making six add-on acquisitions since 2023 to expand product offerings, capabilities, and footprint.

“Bain Capital’s experience partnering with and providing valued resources to industrial and specialty distribution companies will be very important as we continue to scale the business and serve the needs of our suppliers, customers, and employees.”¹These endorsements are provided by certain CEOs and or founders of investments held by certain investment vehicles advised by Bain Capital affiliate investment advisers. None of these CEOs and or founders were directly compensated for providing these endorsements, however, the funds have made investments into such CEOs and or founders’ companies. As a result of this investment, a conflict of interest exists because the CEOs and or founders have an incentive to make positive statements about Bain Capital and their experiences with Bain Capital to maintain the goodwill with Bain Capital.

Bob Graham / Chief Executive Officer / Harrington

“Within a highly technical market, Harrington has built a differentiated platform underpinned by a high-performing team, a strong culture of execution, and deep customer relationships. We partner closely with management and, through our work together, invest in the people and platform driving continued growth.”

Olivia Howard / Partner / Bain Capital