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Consumer Products· Industrial Technology & Manufacturing· M&A Business Services
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About the Company
Edge Right is a direct-to-consumer provider of premium steel landscape edging and adjacent outdoor living products. The company uses in-house metalworking, laser cutting, and robotics, including robot arms, to fabricate its outdoor products, which include landscape edging, planters, tree rings, raised beds, fire pits, and signage.
Customer Base
Edge Right serves homeowners, landscapers, and outdoor living lifestyle customers through its e-commerce platform, Amazon, and differentiated product portfolio.
Company Origin Story
1. COR-TEN Steel for aesthetics and durability.
2. Precision Engineering for simple, yet highly effective, installation.
3. Historic Berry, AL, for building a modern hub of innovation and craftsmanship.
“Our role was to help buyers understand the quality of the company’s growth and the broader strategic value of the engine the team built.”
Chris Parisi, Partner and Head of M&A at CMA, recognized the full extent of what the niche, founder-owned Edge Right was offering the lawn, garden, and outdoor living market.
Thanks to highly automated in-house manufacturing capabilities and a proven digital marketing engine, Edge Right was uniquely positioned to attract strategic interest in the consumer products market as a leading direct-to-consumer (DTC) provider.
All stakeholders benefited from the transaction. The acquisition expands the buyer’s product offering. Our client Edge Right gains a strong strategic partner to support its next phase of growth.
Quantifiable Outcomes for Stakeholders
Roger Lewis, Founder, and Daniel Mullaly, President, built the successful business that combines a differentiated product, passionate customer base, and AI-enabled tools.
As exclusive financial advisor, CMA worked closely with the Edge Right team to develop and then position the company’s growth story for peak valuation, manage a detailed diligence process, and identify the right strategic partner for the business. Ultimately, we completed the transaction in less than seven months from signed contract and three months from launch.
CMA led a highly competitive sale process with more than 100 signed NDAs, six management presentations, and two rounds of bidding, resulting in a valuation in excess of the owners’ initial expectations. The winning bid was from Super-Sod, headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, a portfolio company of Kainos Capital, and a leading provider of turfgrass, sod, and lawn care products across the Southeast.
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Rollover equity enables seller participation in future growth
2
Go-forward incentive structure matches seller’s go-forward role.
3
Deal structure permits buyer to partner with management
The transaction provided significant liquidity to Lewis while allowing both Lewis and Mullaly to participate in the future growth of the combined business through rollover equity. Roger will retain an ongoing economic interest, while Mullay is expected to remain in an operating leadership role.
“The deal structure reflected the buyers’ desire to partner with management and the sellers’ desire to share in the next chapter of the business.”
–– Chris Parisi, Partner, Head of M&A at CMA
Core Elements of Edge Right’s Growth Story
CMA positioned Edge Right as much more than a landscape edging manufacturer. We described the company as a modern outdoor living products business with a distinctive brand, proprietary products, direct customer relationships, and scalable manufacturing infrastructure. We emphasized––and provided corresponding data as proof––the multiple avenues for continued product and channel expansion.
Our growth story focused on at least four key aspects of Edge Right’s success, both past and potential.
1. Market Shift
The provider of premium steel landscape edging and adjacent outdoor living products stands out from its competitors by offering unique value and a distinct identity but with a solid DTC track record. Building a differentiated brand in a category historically served by commodity products is now widely understood to be progressive. Our client was (and continues to be) highly responsive to evolving industry trends toward a younger consumer demographic that rewards value-add positioning over anonymous shelf-stock.
2. Unique Edge
Lewis and Mullaly’s ingenuity is evident from their company’s founding to today. They developed an AI tech-driven business model capable of creating products entirely in-house, building the brand using social media, and selling and communicating directly with their target audience.
“CMA did an excellent job helping us navigate the process and finding the right home for Edge Right. Their team understood our business, our products, and what made our company special.”
–– Roger Lewis, founder of Edge Right
3. Operational Efficiency
Edge Right distinguished itself in the market through scalable manufacturing and fulfillment capabilities. Industrial robots and automated fabrication equipment were just one part of the growth equation. The company’s standout financial profile combined strong revenue growth and EBITDA margins above 30%, which is unusual for a growing DTC business with in-house manufacturing. CMA emphasized the combination of brand, product differentiation, domestic manufacturing, and marketing efficiency. Together, these factors constituted a stellar record for waste reduction, resource optimization, fast delivery, and high quality.
4. Buyer Fit
Edge Right’s combination of DTC marketing, in-house manufacturing, extensive use of AI and automation, and product innovation made it a very attractive add-on acquisition for a company that primarily sells wholesale and retail, like Super-Sod.
“I am excited to continue leading Edge Right through this next phase of growth. Super-Sod is the right partner for the business, and I am grateful to Roger, our team, and CMA for helping us reach this important milestone.”
–– Daniel Mullaly, President of Edge Right
Tell the Whole Story
We positioned Edge Right as a means to broaden Super-Sod’s geographic footprint. However, our client’s growth story is about a much broader opportunity inherent to its distinct business model.
Edge Right is more than a single-product company. For Super-Sod, the acquisition is the chance to build a premium outdoor living products platform through a direct digital channel. It expands the company’s lawn care offerings into complementary products and extends its customer base to serve a broader range of landscaping needs.
The acquisition achieved an important objective of Super-Sod: to build out a full product suite of landscaping products. For example, the combined company now provides premium hardscape products and planters that complement the existing grass, seed, soil, fertilizer, and lawn care offerings.
What Makes the Edge Right Acquisition So Special
Roger Lewis and Daniel Mullaly represent the next-generation of vertically integrated, ground-up consumer brand development. Edge Right’s AI tech-driven business model creates products entirely in-house, builds the brand using social media, and sells and communicates directly with target audiences.
Super-Sod understood the underlying potential for value creation in the company’s rapid growth, seasonality, working capital needs, marketing efficiency, and ability to scale beyond its signature Cor-Ten steel edging product.
Overcoming Challenges to Demonstrate Scalability
During the course of M&A due diligence and ultimately the sale to Super-Sod, we successfully navigated multiple challenges, including cash-basis financials, rapid EBITDA growth, DTC market perception, and steel cost volatility. CMA sustained a well-conceived, methodical approach throughout the dynamic transaction.
The sales process was detailed, but constructive, and ultimately resulted in a positive outcome for our client.
Like many good transactions, this one required a lot of work behind the scenes. The buyer and its advisors spent significant time getting comfortable with the company’s rapid growth, seasonality, working capital needs, marketing efficiency, and ability to scale beyond its core edging product. In response, our due diligence crossed financial, legal, operational, working capital, and rollover equity matters. We handled a long list of requests with patience, precision, and a steady hand, particularly during the final push to closing.
The growth story CMA told about Edge Right is multi-faceted. We emphasized that Edge Right is not a traditional building products company, nor is the business a typical consumer products business or a simple e-commerce brand. We described how Edge Right intersects all three business models. Perhaps our most important contribution was how carefully we positioned the company to accurately and comprehensively communicate its full potential.
Edge Right’s Growth Story
1.
Emphasizing value of founder-owned, entrepreneur-led businesses
2.
Transforming “niche” into attractive asset
3.
Communicating best-fit as outside the usual sector-fit
4.
Creating competitive tension without over-broadening market
5.
Managing complex transaction dynamics
6.
Delivering for client, especially when expectations are complicated
Securities transactions and services are provided through Carl Marks Securities LLC, a member of FINRA and SIPC, an affiliated entity.
Closing Thought: Importance of Buyer Selection
Super-Sod emerged as the preferred buyer because of its strategic fit, credibility, and ability to support Edge Right’s next phase of growth. The well-established lawn and garden business has deep experience serving homeowners, landscapers, and commercial customers. Our client represents a highly complementary add-on that expands Super-Sod’s product offerings through a premium DTC in the landscape edging and outdoor living category.
Three Key Takeaways
First, CMA’s growth story revolved around a compelling, interdependent strategic rationale. The combined platform has opportunities across DTC, landscaping, commercial, and adjacent product channels. Furthermore, Mullaly’s continued leadership provides continuity after closing
- Edge Right contributes a differentiated premium steel edging product line.
- Our client also adds a robust portfolio of durable, design-forward outdoor living products.
- Super-Sod brings broader lawn and garden marketing knowledge and support.
- Edge Right’s manufacturing and fulfillment capabilities provide a scalable foundation.
Second, the transaction outcome was particularly notable because CMA was able to drive a highly attractive result for a niche, founder-owned business by clearly articulating the company’s growth story, competitive position, and strategic value.
Third, the deal was much more than just a financial transaction, because it provided a logical home for our client’s business.
Summary of Article
CMA played a pivotal role in realizing the deal, under an accelerated schedule, and communicating the company’s fundamental value: scalability beyond the core edging product. The outcome was especially meaningful given that we completed the transaction in less than seven months from signed contract and three months from launch. CMA delivered value in excess of the sellers’ original expectations.
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