Pro Mach

Mark Anderson has led the firm as CEO since founding it in 1998. Day-to-day acquisition sourcing and integration is managed by a dedicated in-house corporate development team, with final investment approval resting with Anderson and the board representatives of Leonard Green & Partners, the majority owner since 2017.

Pro Mach pursues a proprietary deal-sourcing model focused on founder-owned packaging machinery companies. Targets are typically identified through trade-show networks, packaging-industry associations, and direct outreach to owners nearing retirement. The firm's reputation as a brand-preserving acquirer provides a competitive edge over financial buyers in auctions for family-held equipment makers.

Pro Mach operates as a permanent-hold industrial platform structured as a corporation, not a closed-end fund. While it has been majority-owned by private equity sponsors (Odyssey Investment Partners, and now Leonard Green & Partners since 2017), the entity itself acquires businesses with no predefined exit timeline, earning its revenue from the operating performance of its subsidiaries.

Pro Mach covers primary packaging (filling, capping, bottling), end-of-line systems (case packing, palletizing, shrink wrapping), labeling and coding, and flexible-materials converting. The firm maintains over 45 subsidiary brands across these segments, allowing customers to source integrated packaging lines from a single vendor.

While its headquarters and largest concentration of brands remain in Covington, Kentucky, Pro Mach has expanded internationally through acquisitions like Zalkin in France and other targets in the UK and Mexico. Its geographic reach follows its multinational food, beverage, and pharma customers who demand globally consistent packaging automation solutions.

Leonard Green & Partners acquired a majority stake in 2017 in a deal that people familiar with the matter valued near $2 billion. Unlike a pure financial sponsor, Leonard Green's long-duration buyout model allows Pro Mach to retain its decentralized operational architecture while providing capital for continued add-on acquisitions without the pressure of a near-term fund liquidation.

Pro Mach's machinery ends up on lines owned by multinational food producers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, consumer-goods companies, and industrial-product fabricators. Its bottling, capping, and labeling equipment, for example, serves beverage and personal-care brands, while its robotic palletizers and wrappers support e-commerce fulfillment and warehouse-automation customers.