Origination

Imperial Brady (f/k/a Imperial Dade) is a specialty distributor of foodservice and janitorial sanitation products. The business was led by Robert and Jason Tillis, who built Imperial Dade into a leading East Coast-focused platform. Bain Capital identified Imperial Dade as a priority target about a year before the company’s sale process, recognizing its strong foundation that we believe we could accelerate by investing in organic growth capabilities and M&A. In June 2019, we entered a partnership with the Tillis family and existing investors

Opportunity and investment

Foodservice and janitorial-sanitation distribution is an attractive, cycle-resilient market with secular growth tailwinds. We continue to believe Imperial Dade could provide a better value proposition to customers, employees, and suppliers by further scaling the business and expanding its footprint across the US. We identified an opportunity to further accelerate M&A, investing in commercial and operational initiatives, and driving margin improvement.

Value creation

Partnering with Imperial Dade’s management team, we worked to execute a bold transformation strategy, resulting in significant growth:

• Organizational optimization: Strengthened leadership and capabilities by building regional teams with full P&L ownership, establishing a commercial excellence function, and investing in SG&A, including adding key executives and doubling the size of the salesforce.
• Operational expansion: Expanded Imperial Dade’s North American footprint and enhanced efficiency by opening six supersite facilities and optimizing the broader distribution network. Advanced sustainable initiatives to minimize the environmental impacts of its fleet and facilities, ensure the safety and well-being of its employees, and further engagement through expanding ownership across the employee base.
• Commercial excellence: Delivered transformative growth, increasing revenue ~2.5x and EBITDA 3.5x+ in three years through a combination of organic expansion and M&A.¹Imperial Dade data from June 14th, 2019, through December 31, 2022

Next chapter

By 2022, Imperial Dade had executed on our initial investment thesis by scaling its footprint, building key capabilities, and accelerating M&A. Bain Capital sold a significant stake in Imperial Dade and reinvested in the business to partner with management in its next chapter of growth. In 2026, Imperial Dade launched the Imperial Brady brand after merging with BradyPLUS.

“We appreciate the support and partnership Bain Capital has provided as we have expanded our business and grown our network. The team and infrastructure have enabled us to move faster and provide differentiated service to our customers.”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.

Jason Tillis / CEO / Imperial Brady

“When we invested in Imperial Dade, we shared a vision with the Tillis family: build an industry leader on the strong foundation they had created, with an unwavering focus on best-in-class customer service. Today, Imperial Dade has become the preeminent platform in North America—one that leading independent operators are proud to join.”

Ken Hanau / Partner/ Bain Capital