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Our Ownership
Castle Harlan invests in controlling interests in the buyout and development of middle-market companies in North America and Europe. The firm traces its roots to the start of the institutionalized private-equity business in the late 1960s. Castle Harlan’s currently-owned companies include Ames True Temper, a highly-regarded manufacturer of lawn and garden tools and accessories, and Baker & Taylor, a prominent domestic and international distributor of books and entertainment products to libraries and retailers. To learn more about Castle Harlan, their professionals, and their investment portfolio, please visit www.castleharlan.com.
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Our History Advanced Accessory Systems (AAS) roots date back to the 1960’s with a company called St. Clair Metal Products, located in Port Huron, Michigan. St. Clair Metal Products was involved in the manufacture of exterior trim products for the OEM industry. This facility is now our AAS Metal Fabrication Plant. From 1974-1989, another company existed in Port Huron, called Huron St. Clair Company which was a Division of Masco Industries. This company was also in the exterior automotive trim business and was manufacturing roof and deck-lid racks. This facility is now our AAS Finish and Assembly Plant. In 1989, the two companies merged and became Huron St. Clair, Inc., a subsidiary of Masco Industries, which it remained until 1994. Huron St. Clair, Inc. acquired Mesick Metal Products and a combination of the operations of Norris Trim and Thompson International. During this time period, the rack business of our company grew significantly. In 1992, Pride Plastics, a manufacturer of automotive plastic underbody and trim parts, became a part of our company and was re-named Pride St. Clair. Since 1990 they had been one of our suppliers for the S-Van crossrail assembly. Pride St. Clair moved to Shelby Township, which today is one of our AAS Plastic Injection Molding plants. Huron St. Clair, Inc. was renamed in 1994, becoming MascoTech Accessories, a business unit of MascoTech Vehicle Operations, a part of the MascoTech Automotive Systems Group. Our company continued in the production of roof racks as well as exterior metal trim. In early 1995, the company was divided into two segments: MascoTech Accessories/Rack Systems and MascoTech Industrial Components. Most of the exterior trim work was assigned to the Industrial Components group. MascoTech Accessories/Rack Systems was spun off from the MascoTech organization in September 1995 and became Advanced Accessory Systems. The company relocated its headquarters to the Sterling Heights office, where it remains today. At that time, we were a $65 million company, producing rack systems and accessories for the OEM and aftermarket. With the acquisition in 1996 of Europe’s leading towing system supplier, Brink International, and in 1997, the addition of SportRack, a designer and supplier of racks and accessories for the Canadian aftermarket, the company chose to utilize the name Advanced Accessory Systems for the parent holding company, and the entire roof rack systems operation became SportRack Automotive. The announcement of the opening of a SRA plant in Bakov, Czech Republic in 1999 made way for increased European sales. In April of 2003, Castle Harlan Inc, a New York-based private equity company bought control of Advanced Accessory Systems. At this point, sales of rack and towing systems totaled $330 million. A divestiture of the towing systems business and aftermarket accessory products was finalized in the fall of 2006, with Castle Harlan selling off the Brink towing systems business in Europe, the North American towing business (both OEM and aftermarket), and the aftermarket rack accessory business located in Canada. Associated with this sale was the SportRack name, and the OEM rack and accessory business returned to its former name, Advanced Accessory Systems which is who we are today! |
