Brass Ring Capital, a Milwaukee and Minneapolis-based private equity firm, has bought a majority stake in Topeka, Kanas-based Nationwide Learning, a publisher and direct marketer of student authored books to parents via elementary schools.
No terms of the transaction were disclosed.
Nationwide Learning is the nation’s leading provider of book kits used by children in K-6 schools to draw pictures and write stories for what eventually become hardbound books. Nationwide operates by providing kits and finished books free of charge to classrooms and students, while selling reprints of the books to parents.
“This is a great niche that (the company founder Joseph Gigous) found,” said Steve Peterson, managing director-Milwaukee with Brass Ring. “There is a ton of opportunity to migrate this to the digital age. And we think there are a ton of non-school type venues.”
Nationwide Learning is now doing business with about 4,800 of the 70,000 elementary schools in the country, giving it natural additional growth potential.
The transaction was a recapitalization of the company, allowing Brass Ring and additional investors to buy a majority share, but also giving Gigous a chance to retain a piece of Nationwide Learning.
“He has no plans to step out of the business,” Peterson said. “He gets to take some value off the table and get access to additional investment and resources from us.”
