New Berlin, Wis. – Process Retail Group, Inc., an integrated designer and manufacturer of custom permanent retail environments announced today that it has acquired substantially all the assets of Accent Industries, Inc. of Kenosha, WI. Accent Industries is a manufacturer of custom wood and metal retail fixtures for grocery store chains across the United States. The sale was effective as of May 1 and exact terms of the transaction will not be disclosed.

Accent Industries was established in 1973 in Illinois and moved to its current 40,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Kenosha in 2002. Dave Shaw, the president of Accent Industries, has owned the company since 1975 and will be staying on as the general manager of Accent. The Accent Industries name will be preserved and the company will be integrated as a division of Process Retail Group. Process Retail Group plans to retain all Accent employees in Kenosha and grow the operation.

“The acquisition of Accent Industries will now provide our clients with integrated in-house wood and metal manufacturing capabilities to go with our existing screen printing, digital printing, vacuum forming, plastic fabricating, mass assembly, and logistics capabilities,” says Process Retail Group President Bob Zanotti.

“These capabilities, coupled with our robust front-end design and retail development services, will give major brands and national retailers lower program production costs, improved speed to market with both prototypes and production work, and provide stronger manufacturing process controls in the execution of national rollout retail programs,” Zanotti adds.

Both Process Retail Group and Accent Industries are privately held, and while both produce permanent displays and fixtures for retail environments, the companies do not currently share the same customer base and have never competed. Accent Industries has historically specialized in front-end systems for grocery stores including check stands and cash-wraps which are custom-designed and produced in-house. The company also designs and produces merchandising tables and custom retail fixtures for a variety of other retail environments.

According to Shaw, Process Retail Group is the perfect fit for Accent Industries as he considers his eventual retirement. “I was looking for a company that would build on what we have and take it to the next level,” he says. “Accent customers will now have very strong retail design and custom fixture development capabilities. Process Retail Group is a very well-run and financially solid company with a strong national sales presence.”

“Most of all,” Shaw continues, “I have been impressed with the ‘people first’ business philosophy of the company. Process Retail Group is a perennially recognized top employer in southeast Wisconsin and will be a great place to work for our Accent employees. Given our close 40-minute proximity in location, I can’t think of a better fit.”

Process Retail Group originated in 1929 as Process Displays in Milwaukee as a sign shop and quickly evolved into a producer of in-store displays for national brands. Since 2001 under the leadership of Bob Zanotti, the company has transitioned into an integrated retail environments company providing total retail project design, manufacturing, and logistics services. The company has quadrupled in size over the last ten years and moved into its new LEED-certified headquarters in New Berlin, WI 18 months ago.

“Accent Industries is a natural extension of our company,” Zanotti says. “Our front-end retail design group provides very strong retail development services to customize retail spaces and optimize the shopping experience.” He adds, “We have some of the top designers, engineers, and model makers in the industry. Additionally, we already subcontract a lot of wood and metal production. Accent will provide some internal manufacturing capability, but we will still need our local wood and metal suppliers to provide additional capabilities and capacity.”

Process Retail Group maintains a lean manufacturing operation and financial model to best serve the demands of a job shop manufacturing operation. The company scales up and down with fluctuating volumes by outsourcing a portion of its manufacturing to a highly developed network of local and foreign manufacturing suppliers.

“We will use the Accent Industries name as our fourth retail market segment specializing in checkouts and merchandising fixtures for grocery store environments,” Zanotti explains. In addition to Accent Industries, other Process Retail Group divisions include Edge In-Store™ (custom retail fixtures and environments), Process Merchandising Systems™ (custom at shelf merchandising systems for grocers and CPGs), and Process POP™ (custom branded signage and displays).

“Our model offers our customers the best of both worlds: Strong control of the design and development of their retail space along with industry-best production pricing,” concludes Zanotti. “Our goal is to be the industry leader in the execution of complex national retail programs for major brands and national chain retailers.”

Source: Process Retail Group