amateur_plumber
New Member
On February 2008, American Standard Americas merged with two other plumbing fixture companies, Crane Plumbing and Eljer to create American Standard Brands.
American Standard Brands is a closely held manufacturer of plumbing fixtures, sold under the American Standard, Crane, Fiat, Sanymetal, Showerite and Eljer brand names, based in Piscataway Township, New Jersey, United States. It is principally owned by Sun Capital Partners with Bain Capital Partners holding a minority stake.
I know this is an old post, but this information alone tipped me over the edge - I will NOT consider buying American Standard anything at this time. Even if the quality was OK prior to this event, I'd put money that corners have been cut since.
I don't know much about plumbing but I know a little about business. Given that this business is now owned by these private equity guys (Sun and Bain), you can bet it's being managed for cash flow, not for quality. If quality costs more in the short term, it will be sacrificed.
Management is now working for their investors, who have a 3 to 7-year time horizon. Goal is to sell the business for a big profit within that time. They will take any action they need to squeeze more profit and cash flow out of the business.
Private equity has its legitimate place in the business world - they are great at cleaning up lax, inefficient companies, however, from a consumer's perspective, there's a big difference between a company that's owned by buy-and-flip shops, and a company that is thinking about what their reputation will be 20, 30, 50 years from now.
Anyway, I will be shopping for, buying, and installing a Toto in the near future. Will post results on this forum.
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