From Chicago Market Leader to Multi-State HVAC Platform
Munch’s Supply is a wholesale distributor of HVAC equipment, parts, and supplies serving residential and commercial contractors across the Midwest, Great Plains, and Mountain states, headquartered in Hillside, Illinois. When Rotunda invested, Munch’s was already a standout in its market. Ingersoll Rand, one of the largest HVAC manufacturers in the country, saw market share with Munch’s run well above its national average — a reflection of the service levels and contractor relationships the founding team had built over decades. The opportunity was to take that foundation and build something bigger around it.
A market leader at an inflection point
HVAC distribution is a business built on trust. Contractors depend on their distributor to have the right equipment, the right parts, and the right people — and switching costs are high when a relationship is working. Munch’s had earned that trust across one of the country’s largest metro markets in Chicago, and the broader sector offered compelling long-term tailwinds. Millions of aging units were due for replacement, and contractors were increasingly leaning on their distributors to increase the contractors’ own efficiency.
The inflection point was leadership. The grandson of the founder was preparing to step up to run the company, but the internal bench wasn’t yet built to carry the business through its next phase of growth. There was also a clear M&A opportunity in a fragmented market where Munch’s operational credibility and supplier relationships gave it a natural advantage as a consolidator.
The challenge
Founder transitions are among the most delicate moments in a business’s life. Preserving the culture and customer relationships that drove Munch’s outperformance while simultaneously building the professional infrastructure for a larger, multi-state organization required careful sequencing and genuine trust between Rotunda and the leadership team.
The landscape
Independent HVAC distributors operated across a highly fragmented market with limited sophistication in financial management, systems, and M&A integration. For a well-regarded operator with the right supplier relationships and a proven service model, the conditions for consolidation were favorable.
Supporting a transition. Building a platform.
We’re looking for founders ready to professionalize and scale—and we know you’re assessing fit, too. This means honest conversations about goals, capabilities, and what success looks like. When it aligns, our entire team commits alongside you. This includes our deal team led by two Rotunda partners, our value creation team, and operating executive network.
Rotunda immediately supported the addition of a CFO and Controller to establish financial discipline, providing the founder with the confidence to step back on a thoughtful timeline. Over time the leadership team expanded further with a VP of Operations and Directors across HR, IT, Marketing, Sales, Purchasing, and Customer Service — bringing the professional depth needed to run a growing multi-state organization.
Formal reporting, financial planning processes, and KPIs were implemented to give leadership clear visibility into performance. CRM and IT systems were upgraded, RF technology and delivery optimization tools were introduced, and business processes were standardized across all locations to support consistent execution as the platform grew.
Munch’s expanded into Michigan by taking over a key supplier territory, then completed four acquisitions including a $100M Ingersoll-Rand distributor that significantly broadened the company’s geographic reach. Each transaction was guided by a repeatable integration framework that Rotunda helped develop and refine across the investment period.
The company’s “We Make It Easy” value proposition was formalized and embedded across the organization. Teams were aligned around a common language for customer service excellence, and metrics were introduced to ensure those standards were consistently delivered and recognized — preserving the culture that had driven Munch’s outperformance from the beginning.
Growth without losing what made it great.
When Rotunda exited in 2019, Munch’s Supply had grown from a respected Chicago-area distributor into a multi-state platform with the leadership, systems, and acquisition track record to continue its growth well beyond the investment period. The founder transition that could have been a vulnerability became an opportunity — and the business that emerged was more professionally run, more geographically diverse, and more capable than at any point in its history.
What made the outcome particularly meaningful was how much of the original character of the business was preserved through the process. The service standards, the contractor relationships, and the “We Make It Easy” culture that defined Munch’s were still firmly intact. They were just operating at a much larger scale.
“Through multiple strategy sessions, Rotunda helped refine Munch’s value proposition, which, in turn, gave us the confidence that we could replicate our unique service offering while expanding outside our traditional geographic area. As a result, we expanded from one metropolitan area to over seven states in just four years, while still preserving our family culture.”
This case study is for informational purposes only. The quoted statement reflects the opinion of a portfolio company executive and is not necessarily indicative of the experience of other portfolio companies. No compensation was provided for this testimonial, and there can be no assurance of future results.