Blackford Capital acquires E.G. Middleton: price, structure and what it means for electrical and mechanical services buyers

Blackford Capital

acquires

E.G. Middleton

Price

Not disclosed

Structure

Add-on to Habco platform

Target size

~120 employees

Founded

1920

Location

Norfolk, VA

Published 22 October 2026 · Deal announced 2026-10-14 · Acquisitions.com Deal Reports

This report is for anyone buying, or planning to buy, an electrical, mechanical or plumbing business. It covers what Blackford Capital bought, what was and was not disclosed, and why a private equity firm wanted a 106-year-old family contractor. By the end you will know what this deal says about where buyers in the trades are putting their money.

What Blackford bought

E.G. Middleton is an electrical contractor in Norfolk, Virginia. The company was founded in 1920 and is run by the third generation of the same family. Its president and CEO is E.G. "Rudy" Middleton III. He and his management team stay with the business after the sale, according to Blackford's release.

The company has about 120 skilled workers. More than 100 of them are electricians. That ratio matters: most of the headcount is billable trade labor, not office staff.

The customer list is the heart of the deal. Blackford names the U.S. Navy, Dominion Energy and Newport News Shipbuilding. Other work comes from government, industrial, transportation and commercial clients. The jobs include high-voltage power distribution, substations, building wiring, site lighting and control systems. Much of it is done at shipyards, piers and dry docks.

This is not a residential home-services shop. Nobody here is rewiring kitchens. It is a commercial and industrial contractor whose clients are large and slow to switch. That difference shapes everything a smaller buyer can take from the deal, which we come to below.

What Blackford paid and how

The price was not disclosed. Neither Blackford's release nor the trade-press report at Pulse 2.0 gives a dollar figure, a multiple, or the split between cash, debt and rolled equity. No advisors, lenders or law firms are named.

We do not estimate prices for deals where the parties stay quiet. What is clear is the structure. E.G. Middleton was bought as an add-on. That means Habco, the platform company Blackford already owns, is the buyer of record, and E.G. Middleton becomes part of it rather than a stand-alone holding.

Why it fits Blackford's plan

Blackford Capital is a private equity firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, founded in 2010 by Martin Stein. It takes majority control of lower-middle-market industrial companies. Its release says those companies usually have revenue between $20 million and $200 million.

Habco Partnership is Blackford's mechanical, electrical and plumbing services platform. Blackford's press page shows the firm bought Habco and Moro in December 2025, launched the platform in March 2026, and merged the two under the Habco name. Andrew Habel is the CEO. E.G. Middleton is the first add-on announced since the launch, and it takes Habco into Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic for the first time.

Jeff Johnson, managing director at Blackford, put the logic in one line: "they make the platform strategically stronger and more capable". In the release he points to three things E.G. Middleton brings: deep technical skill, a Mid-Atlantic footprint, and customer relationships built over generations.

Andrew Habel, Habco's CEO, said: "Rudy and his family have built E.G. Middleton into a highly respected business". He also said Habco is grateful for the trust placed in it to carry the legacy forward. Read together, the two quotes say the plan is to keep the business, the people and the name, and plug them into a bigger group.

What it means for buyers in electrical and mechanical services

You are not Blackford Capital. You will not buy a 120-person Navy contractor as your first deal. But three parts of this transaction apply to a first-time buyer or a small roll-up operator just as well.

Add-on logic beats stand-alone logic. Blackford did not buy E.G. Middleton on its own merits alone. It bought it because Habco already existed and needed Virginia. If you own one electrical or HVAC business, your second one is worth more to you than to a stranger, because you can share estimators, back office and bonding. That is the whole idea behind an AI-powered roll-up, and it works at the two-shop level too.

Keep the owner. Rudy Middleton stays as president and CEO. The relationships with the Navy and Dominion sit with him and his team, not in a contract. When you buy a trades business, the owner's handover period and an earn-out or seller note are often worth more than a lower price. The SBA's 7(a) program, which most small buyers use, allows a seller note alongside the loan, so the structure is available to you.

Old customers are the asset. A century-old contractor survives on repeat work from clients who are slow to change vendors. Look for the same thing at your size: service contracts, government or utility approvals, and a customer list older than five years. Those are harder to copy than a fleet of vans.

If you want help finding and financing a deal like this at a smaller scale, start at /buy or read how to buy a business. Roll-up operators planning more than one acquisition can read about roll-up funding. Moran Pober, who built and sold Rollups.com and has advised buyers and sellers for over ten years, works with both groups.

What to watch

Watch for the next Habco add-on. The platform is seven months old and has made its first move outside its home region. More deals in the Mid-Atlantic would show the plan is geographic. Deals in plumbing or mechanical would show it is about trade mix.

Watch whether the E.G. Middleton name survives. Blackford merged Habco and Moro under one name. Habel's words suggest the Middleton brand stays, but a rebrand within a year or two would be a change of plan worth noting.

Watch pricing in the MEP space. Private equity platforms in electrical and mechanical services are competing for family-owned contractors with good government and industrial books. More platform buyers means more bids for the same businesses. A smaller buyer looking at a 15-person shop will not face Blackford, but will face the sellers' expectations that platforms create.