Brightstar Capital Partners Invests in Material Handling Group, a Technician-Led Provider of Material Handling Equipment and Aftermarket Services
Brightstar partners with CEO Roger Runyan and industry veteran Jonathan Dawley to support the Company’s next chapter of growth
Canton, MI and New York, NY – October 20, 2026 – Brightstar Capital Partners (“Brightstar”), a private equity firm focused on partnering with founders, entrepreneurs, and management teams, has acquired a majority interest in Material Handling Group USA (“MHG” or the “Company”). Financial terms were not disclosed. MHG is a technician-led provider of new, used, and rental material handling equipment and aftermarket parts and service, serving customers across Michigan, New York, and the Mid-Atlantic region through its Fraza, Vitan Equipment, Matthai Material Handling, and Buffalo Lift Trucks brands. Roger Runyan will continue to lead the Company as CEO, and he and his management team will retain a meaningful ownership stake.
Brightstar will partner with industry veteran Jonathan Dawley, former President and CEO of KION North America, who will serve as Executive Chair of the Company, drawing on his more than two decades of experience across the material handling equipment industry to support MHG.
Material Handling Group began as a single-location forklift repair shop in Detroit in 1938, and aftermarket services have remained the foundation of the business ever since. Roger Runyan acquired the business in 2017 after more than 20 years working at the Company and grew it into today’s integrated platform. Each of the Company’s brands is anchored by a recurring aftermarket business, spanning service, parts, and rental, that is critical to warehousing, logistics, and manufacturing operations at the center of today’s economy.
“We’ve spent years building MHG into a business our customers and employees can count on, and this partnership gives us the resources to take it to the next level,” said Runyan. “Brightstar brings real experience with technician-led, service-based businesses like ours, and I’m excited to put that expertise and their resources to work to accelerate our growth.”
The investment reflects Brightstar’s continued deployment of its dedicated lower middle market strategy, which focuses on partnering with founder-, family-, and entrepreneur-led businesses to support long-term growth.
“MHG is the kind of owner-led, service-driven business our lower middle market strategy was designed to partner with,” said Charles Yoon, Partner at Brightstar and Managing Partner of the firm’s lower middle market strategy. “Distribution buildout, reshoring, and the shift toward automated warehouses are expanding the equipment base that needs skilled service, and MHG’s technician-led model is suited for that. We believe the Company is well positioned for continued growth, both organically and through selective M&A.”
“MHG’s success is built on its technician workforce and the trust it has earned with customers over decades,” said Sean Courtney, Managing Director at Brightstar. “We see a meaningful opportunity to invest in that workforce and bring practical technology and AI to the front line, from technician onboarding and diagnostics to smarter service dispatch and predictive maintenance that keeps customers’ fleets up and running. We look forward to working with Roger and his team to build on the Company’s strong foundation.”
About Material Handling Group
Headquartered in Canton, Michigan, Material Handling Group traces its roots to a single-location forklift repair shop founded in 1938 and has grown, under CEO Roger Runyan, into an integrated regional platform through its Fraza, Vitan Equipment, Matthai Material Handling, and Buffalo Lift Trucks brands. Together, these brands provide aftermarket parts and service along with new, used, and rental material handling equipment to a diverse customer base across Michigan, New York, and the Mid-Atlantic region, partnering with leading OEMs to deliver end-to-end solutions supported by technician-led service organizations. For more information, please visit www.frazagroup.com.
About Brightstar Capital Partners
Brightstar Capital Partners is a middle-market private equity firm with approximately $5 billion in assets under management, focused on control-oriented investments in business services and industrials companies. Brightstar combines hands-on operational value creation with a focus on disciplined deployment of artificial intelligence to support execution, productivity, and decision-making across its portfolio. For more information, please visit www.brightstarcp.com.