adpma acquired by Mollenhour Gross

ADPma, LLC, an aerospace parts company located in Piney Flats, TN, announced the next chapter in its history. Owners Rick Rathbun, David Blythe, and Rick Wedgeworth have sold the business to the Knoxville-based investment firm, Mollenhour Gross.

"We've built ADPma with a unique engineering and customer-centric DNA and have grappled in the past with how that legacy might endure a change of ownership," said Rathbun. "But there was something special about the Mollenhour Gross team. We 'clicked' immediately. Myself, David, and Wedge couldn't be more excited for our employees, our customers, and our industry, to have ADPma join the Mollenhour Gross family."

Rathbun believes Mollenhour Gross's resources, structure, and approach will allow ADPma to sustainably grow its product development pipeline and customer base: "We believe their patient capital and decentralized approach will allow us to do more of what we do best – develop world-class aerospace parts for world-class manufacturers, carriers, and MROs."

Mollenhour Gross is excited to be the steward of the ADPma legacy.

"We're thrilled and humbled to be entrusted with ADPma and everything it means to its team, customers, suppliers, and the industry," said Dustin Gross, a co-founder of Mollenhour Gross. His partner, Jordan Mollenhour, added: "We have so much respect for entrepreneurs like Rick, David, and Wedge, and for what the aviation industry represents in our country and our society. We know the industry is hurting right now, but aerospace has been at the core to human progress for the last 100+ years, and it will be here for a long time to come. Our goal is to give ADPma a stable home with access to reliable capital, where we can combine some of our resources and long-term perspective, with the existing team's design engineering, and industry expertise, to support their customers' goals for decades to come."

Rathbun, Blythe, and Wedgeworth will stay on board to continue running the company, but they are also excited about the prospect of adding to their roster. According to Wedgeworth: "We have a great team of engineers committed to solving our customers' hardest problems. But of course, we want to get better and do more." Blythe added: "There are still more customer problems to solve, and to reach our goals, we need more of the best and the brightest on our team. It's a special opportunity for the right kind of leaders – entrepreneurial, curious, disciplined, and honest."