The business
Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Mississippi, VIP Cinema Seating ("VIP") is the leader in designing, engineering, and manufacturing premium seating solutions for the global cinema and entertainment industry. VIP helped to pioneer the premium seating concept and is the largest manufacturer of luxury cinema seating in the world.
The deal
VIP’s owner-managers were seeking an institutional minority equity partner to help pursue substantial growth opportunities and instil best practices in preparation of a broader sale transaction in the near-term future. VIP represented an opportunity to back Steve and his strong, incumbent management team in a large addressable market underpinned by customers experiencing multi-year upgrade cycles. MML invested in the off-market opportunity for a significant minority stake in partnership with VIP’s founding owner-managers.
The exit
During MML’s investment period, VIP experienced significant top line growth, diversification, and overall enhancement of its mix of business. MML brought board-level support and analysis to assist VIP in expanding its manufacturing capacity from two to five facilities while also executing on plans to develop an international presence. By 2017, VIP had grown its EBITDA by 5x and the business was acquired by a US-based private equity investor.