One of Greater Cincinnati's largest public companies just closed a $315 million deal that pushes it into a market it had never touched before. Hillman Solutions Corp. completed its acquisition of Kanebridge Corp., an Elgin, Illinois-based fastener distributor, on September 3, giving the hardware giant a foothold in industrial master distribution for the first time.
The purchase agreement was first announced August 3, and as reported by WKRC, Hillman CEO Jon Michael Adinolfi said Kanebridge diversifies the company's customer base and expands its presence in the industrial distribution channel. Hillman Solutions, also known as the Hillman Group, is a hardware distributor and one of the region's largest public companies, according to the same report.
The deal adds serious scale to Hillman's fastener business. According to a statement from Hillman Group, the Kanebridge acquisition brings more than 44,000 commercial and military-grade fastener SKUs into Hillman's catalog and expands its addressable market in the U.S. industrial fastener channel to roughly $3 billion — a channel that had previously been untapped territory for the company.
How Hillman Paid for It
Financing a $315 million purchase isn't simple, and Hillman's paperwork shows the mechanics. Per a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Hillman's operating subsidiaries amended their term credit agreement with Jefferies Finance LLC on August 28 to secure a new $200 million senior secured Term Loan B, maturing July 22, 2033 and priced at SOFR plus 200 basis points. The company covered the remainder of the purchase using cash on hand and its existing revolving credit line.
The Kanebridge deal wasn't a one-off move. It marks Hillman's third major bolt-on acquisition of 2026, following its April purchases of Campbell Chain & Fittings and Delaney Hardware — deals that Modern Distribution Management reported were together projected to add more than $30 million in net sales for the fiscal year, with Campbell expanding industrial maintenance offerings and Delaney strengthening door hardware. Following the August agreement, Hillman raised its full-year 2026 guidance, now projecting net sales between $1.670 billion and $1.720 billion and Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $285 million, citing anticipated cost synergies and tax benefits from the deal.
A Growing Balance Sheet Backs the Bet
Hillman entered this acquisition spree from a position of financial strength. For the second quarter ended June 27, the company reported net sales of $442.3 million, a 9.8% increase year-over-year, and net income of $21.1 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, up from $15.8 million in the same quarter of 2025. That revenue growth reflected new business wins along with the earlier bolt-on acquisitions completed earlier in the year.
Kanebridge itself brings decades of operating history to the deal. Founded in 1975, the company runs distribution centers in Illinois and California and sells exclusively to industrial distributors through its proprietary FasNet e-commerce platform, which allows same-day order shipping. Older company data shows Kanebridge maintaining an active inventory of nearly 3.8 billion fastener pieces across its warehouse network with a consistent 98% to 99% daily order fill rate, and the company has strictly avoided direct-to-OEM or end-user sales to keep from competing with its own distributor clients.
Law firm Koley Jessen represented Kanebridge as legal counsel in the transaction, with the deal team led by attorneys Helmut Brugman and Taylor Cammack, according to the firm's own announcement of the closing in late August.
Local Ties Run Through Forest Park
The corporate expansion arrives alongside a major physical transformation close to home. Redeveloper Hillwood Investment Properties cleared the 90-acre site of the former Forest Fair Mall in Forest Park, Ohio, earlier this year to build a 715,736-square-foot multipurpose industrial facility anchored by the Hillman Group, a project Hoodline previously reported. Local officials had also flagged a planned $95 million headquarters and campus move tied to the site.
Redevelopment along the surrounding South Gilmore Road corridor has continued to build momentum, with Hoodline noting in its coverage of Fairfield's approval of 68 villas near Mercy Health hospital that the nearby former mall site being developed for the Hillman Group remains a key anchor for the area's ongoing commercial and residential growth.
As of March 2026, Hillman Solutions employed approximately 4,020 workers globally, with more than 92% of its workforce concentrated in North America, according to workforce data from Revelio Labs, which noted headcount had grown 3.3% between 2023 and 2026. With the Kanebridge deal now closed and a new campus rising on the old mall site, Hillman's footprint in Greater Cincinnati looks set to keep expanding on both the corporate and physical fronts.
