Merchants Metals

Merchants Metals

Merchants Metals traces its roots to 1940, when Nagel Coat Hanger Company began weaving chain-link fence fabric. The firm emerged in its current form in 1976 following a corporate restructuring of Merchants, Inc. Its operational history reflects successive ownership by CRH plc, Atlas Holdings, and since 2021 by The Sterling Group (per the firm). The firm manufactures and distributes fencing product lines spanning chain link (aluminized, color coated, galvanized, pre-slatted), ornamental (Ameristar, Guardsman, Jerith, Secure-Weld), welded wire, gates, vinyl, and wood. It serves industrial, commercial, high-security, and residential end markets through a national footprint of 35 service centers and 4 manufacturing facilities. Geographic coverage extends across the continental US, with confirmed service center presence in states including Texas, Indiana, North Carolina, Colorado, Maryland, and California. The Sterling Group purchased Merchants Metals from Atlas Holdings in 2021 and established it as the foundation for Fencing Supply Group (FSG), an independent fencing distribution platform. FSG targets professional fencing contractors across residential, industrial, commercial, and infrastructure end markets. The firm currently operates 39 total locations (per the firm). No recent operational events outside the 2021 acquisition are publicly available within the last 24 months. Merchants Metals' structural differentiator is its dual role as both manufacturer and distributor under a private-equity-backed platform (FSG) — a model that concentrates supply and distribution scale in a fragmented industry. The firm does not operate as a capital allocator in the traditional family office or asset manager sense; it is an operating company within an intermediate holding structure.