Audax Private Equity, a mid- to lower-mid-market investor, has sold Colony Hardware, a distributor of construction materials and jobsite supplies, to White Cap, a distributor of specialty construction supplies and safety products for professional contractors. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Based in Orange, Connecticut with more than 1,100 employees as of December 2025, Colony operates across 19 states in the Central and Eastern United States, as well as Texas, working with contractors and jobsites across multiple end markets including commercial, mixed-use, institutional, industrial, and public infrastructure.
Audax acquired Colony in November 2018. The firm said its investment focused on enabling growth through building out the company’s C-Suite and operational infrastructure; investments in Colony’s digital strategy and branch-level operations; creating value through a “Buy & Build” approach that coupled M&A growth with greenfield expansion, and the execution of the Audax Value Agenda across each phase of the investment lifecycle.
Under Audax’s ownership, Colony completed 16 add-on acquisitions and opened eight greenfield locations, approximately doubling the company’s network of branches and the number of states in which Colony operates.
The sale represents the first exit for Audax in 2026, following a year in which the firm completed nine realisations, including one partial exit, through sales across its Flagship and Origins strategies in 2025.
Jefferies & Co. and Lincoln International served as financial advisors to Audax and Colony, while Ropes & Gray and Fredrikson & Byron served as legal counsel.
