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For those of you who are not familiar with the Old Rusty Bolt story,  I live near an establishment where I can brew my own beer.     In order to take the beer off the premises, it is legally necessary to have a label on the beer so I designed a label and called it “Old Rusty Bolt”.  The first time I did it was years ago and I produced more than I could consume before it would get too old.  I ended up giving a good amount of the first batch away to customers, suppliers and friends from the fastener industry.  A lot of people seemed to really enjoy it (Allan & Greg from Jay-Cee Sales, to name a few) so I made more and gave much of it away too.  I gave some to Eric Dudas of Fasteners Clearing House (www.fastenersclearinghouse.com)  and Fully Threaded Radio (www.fullythreaded.com) and soon after that he told me that he wanted to make absolutely sure I listened to the next Fully Threaded episode.  He said there was a surprise for me on the podcast.  Eric wrote and performed the first and only Old Rusty Bolt jingle.  You can listen to the jingle on the link below if you have not already heard it on Fully Threaded Radio.

From there, the story of Old Rusty Bolt has grown.  I shared some ORB with Larry Kelly of Buckeye Fasteners (www.buckeyefasteners.com) and soon found out that Larry was a true beer aficionado – a real lover of beer.  Not only did Larry tell me enjoyed the beer but he said he wanted to serve Old Rusty Bolt at the Buckeye Fastener booth at the Vegas Fastener Show.  For the last several years, Buckeye Fasteners has served Old Rusty Bolt beer at their booth and they have even developed two ORB commercials that are played on episodes of Fully Threaded Radio  (see links below to listen to their commercials broadcast on Fully Threaded Radio).  I cannot thank Eric and Larry enough for their support and enthusiasm about beer.

Special Request:

Stop by the Buckeye Fasteners booth at the Vegas Fastener Show and join Larry and the gang for a cold, frosty Old Rusty Bolt.  Their booth number is 840 and the beer should start flowing right around noon on Wednesday, October 26, the first day of the show.  And one last thing…when you have your glass full of  Old Rusty Bolt please take a selfie or have someone snap your picture and post it on Twitter using this hashtag:  #oldrustybolt

After the show, we will add your picture to the fastenerblog media page (see tab above).

Old Rusty Bolt jingle from Fully Threaded Radio:  (press to play!)

Buckeye Fasteners Commercial from Fully Threaded Radio

2nd Buckeye Fasteners Commercial from Fully Threaded Radio

Keep it flowin’, Hoss.  And tell ’em Old Rusty sent ya!

“Italy’s Agrati Acquires Continental-Midland”

“LoneStar Group Acquires AmeriBolt”

“PennEngineering Acquires Heyco”

“Steel Dynamics Acquires Vulcan”

“All Integrated Solution Acquires Great Lakes Fastener”

All of these headlines have been published since July!!  It seems like we are hitting another one of those periods where there are a multiple fastener company acquisitions.  It almost seems like a race.  There are several companies (and holding companies) looking to grow through acquisition and only so many companies for sale at a given time.  At least at the right price.  Companies looking to make acquisitions have to have their finger on the industry pulse,  vigilantly scouring the fastener landscape looking for that next owner or company looking for an exit strategy.

Some larger companies have openly discussed their desire to grow by acquisition.  Wurth acquired both DMB and House of Threads earlier in the year and I would expect they are looking for additional companies to buy, if the fit is right.  They seemed to say as much on Fully Threaded Radio. I know many companies are still looking and it would not surprise me at all to hear about more acquisition activity before the Vegas Fastener Show.

One other headline that surprised me was the one that said Rockford Products was closing.  There was an article in Global Fastener News regarding the closing and one line in particular caught my eye –

“I would say their biggest problem was probably mismanagement not having somebody or the right leadership in position to run the company profitably,” Rockford Area Economic Development Council VP of Development Stacy Bernardi told local TV station WREX.  As the article stated, Rockford was also a fastener company acquired by a holding company.  Also from the GFN article –  The cold-formed fastener manufacturer was acquired in 2007 for $23.2 million in a bankruptcy auction by Michigan-based BlackEagle Partners LLC, a private equity firm.  Subsequently BlackEagle had invested $30 million “without seeing any return on the investment” and the fastener manufacturer has defaulted on payments. The company is seeking potential buyers.  So…there’s an acquisition for somebody!

We have seen a flurry of activity before the Vegas Show other years and that always leaves us all with something to talk about in the show aisles.  I think there will be plenty of that to go around this year too.