City Carbonic Joins Meritus Gas Partners

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Jul 09, 2024, 11:00 ET

NEW YORK, July 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Meritus Gas Partners ("Meritus") announced today that it entered into a partnership with City Carbonic, LLC ("City Carbonic"), headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Owned by the Morgan family since 1944, City Carbonic is a leading supplier of carbon dioxide and carbonation services to the food and beverage industries and the cannabis market, serving Oklahoma City and its surrounding areas. Third-generation co-owner Amy Morgan Bruecks will continue to lead the company as President while maintaining significant equity ownership in Meritus.

"This partnership with Meritus represents a significant milestone in City Carbonic's history, and we are excited to join forces with the Meritus team and its partner company network," said Bruecks. "Sadly, my parents, Louis and Irene Morgan, are not with us to celebrate this milestone. Both favored exploring this partnership with Meritus, and I know they would be proud to see it consummated. By leveraging Meritus' extensive partner company network and resources, we will strengthen our service offerings and provide new growth opportunities for our employees and customers."

To date, Meritus has operated in Oklahoma through its partner company, Tulsa Gas & Gear, headquartered in Tulsa, OK.

"We are pleased to welcome City Carbonic, their employees, and their customers into the Meritus family," said Meritus' Chairman, Scott Kaltrider. "City Carbonic has an excellent reputation in the greater Oklahoma City market, and its growth in CO₂ has been exponential. City Carbonic and Tulsa Gas & Gear give Meritus a significant presence in Oklahoma's two largest and growing markets."

"The Morgan family and the City Carbonic team have been leaders in CO₂ distribution in Oklahoma for nearly 100 years," said Steve Stobaugh, President, Tulsa Gas & Gear. "We look forward to learning from their expertise and best practices. We are also excited to help them expand City Carbonic's product offerings to include industrial, medical, and specialty gas products. Tulsa Gas & Gear has long desired to enter the Oklahoma City market, and City Carbonic is very well positioned to serve the various industries operating there."

About Meritus Gas Partners
Founded in December 2020, Meritus is a portfolio company of AEA Investors Small Business Private Equity. Meritus is assembling a national network of high-quality independent distributors of industrial, medical and specialty gases, and welding and safety supplies, located in diverse geographies and serving growing end-markets. Meritus will partner with exceptional businesses and management teams, allow them to remain independent and entrepreneurial, and support them to accelerate growth, improve business quality, and enhance value. Owners are invited to invest meaningful equity into the Meritus holding company to allow them to share in the success of the overall platform. Visit us online at www.MeritusGas.com.

About AEA Investors
AEA Investors LP was founded in 1968 by the Rockefeller, Mellon, and Harriman family interests and S.G. Warburg & Co. as a private investment vehicle for a select group of industrial family offices with substantial assets. AEA has an extraordinary global network built over many years which includes leading industrial families, business executives, and leaders; many of whom invest with AEA as active individual investors and/or join its portfolio company boards or act in other advisory roles. Today, AEA's over 120 investment professionals operate globally with offices in New York, Stamford, San Francisco, London, Munich, and Shanghai. The firm manages funds that have approximately $19 billion of invested and committed capital including the leveraged buyouts of middle market companies and small business companies, growth capital, and debt investments. AEA Small Business Private Equity is a strategy within AEA that currently manages $3.5 billion of invested and committed capital. The team seeks to help grow and transform companies at the lower end of the middle market by sponsoring growing companies with proven management teams and superior business models.