Cedar Creek Inc. and private equity firm Charlesbank Capital Partners today announced a recapitalization whereby Charlesbank will acquire majority ownership of Cedar Creek.

Broken Arrow-based Cedar Creek, 6500 S. 145th East Ave., is the largest cedar distributor in the U.S. The business was the longtime target of Charlesbank, which had been planning a platform acquisition in the wholesale building materials distribution industry for more than a year.

This new partnership brings together one of the biggest and best performing companies in the wholesale building materials distribution industry with the strategic expertise and capital resources of Charlesbank. The transaction, which is structured as an asset purchase, will provide the Cedar Creek business with capital to grow organically and expand within the wholesale building materials distribution segment beyond its current trade areas.

In the 2008 ranking by sales of U.S. lumber companies by Home Channel News, Cedar Creek was ranked 17 with sales of $578 million for 2007.

The parties also announced the appointment of William Adams to the position of chairman and CEO of Cedar Creek. Adams is an industry veteran with executive experience at ABTCO, Louisiana Pacific Corp., Masonite Corp. and Trussway.

Clark Wiens, David Bond and D. Wayne Trousdale will retain meaningful equity stakes in the business and remain in senior executive positions to run the business along with Adams. All four will play key roles in the growth of the business going forward, including expansion into new geographical areas.

“We are very pleased to partner with Charlesbank and Bill Adams as we move our business to the next level,” Wiens said. “We remain focused on delivering top-notch service for our customers in terms of product offerings, delivery and price. This new partnership will help us provide the same high-quality service to our current customers, as well as to new customers in expanded geographies. I am also delighted to have Bill joining us at the helm, as he has been a well-respected industry colleague for the past 20 years.”

“I am excited to join Cedar Creek at this important turning point,” Adams said. “The business has successfully grown over the past 30 years by partnering with customers, suppliers and employees to deliver world-class service and products, and I believe that Charlesbank’s experience will be invaluable as we further build Cedar Creek’s influence and presence.”

Charlesbank’s investment in the Cedar Creek business was the culmination of a focused effort to identify, research and partner with a strong platform business in the wholesale building materials distribution industry. Charlesbank’s principals first worked with Adams when they recruited him to be a senior executive of former portfolio company ABTCO in the early 1990s. Adams helped develop ABTCO into a leading specialty-products supplier following its divestiture from Abitibi-Price.

Cedar Creek was advised by Bruce Jones of Tulsa-based ClearRidge Capital, who noted that the strength of the Cedar Creek management team helped his firm overcome substantial market challenges.

“It is a testament to the vigor of Cedar Creek’s business and to Charlesbank’s strong reputation that we were able to structure this deal to create a formidable growth company in the industry,” he said.

Cedar Creek began as one yard in Tulsa in 1977. The company has since expanded its operations to eight distribution facilities and provides services to more than 13 states across the Midwest and Southeast. It is the country’s premier cedar distributor and one of the largest lumber and manufactured wood distributors in the U.S.

Based in Boston and New York, Charlesbank is a middle-market private equity investment firm managing more than $2 billion of capital. Charlesbank focuses on management-led buyouts and growth capital financings, typically investing $50 million to $150 million per transaction in companies with enterprise values of $100 million to $750 million.

ClearRidge Capital, 427 S. Boston Ave., a business, financial and strategic adviser, is led by Jones and Matthew Bristow. ClearRidge’s team has completed M&A transactions, provided restructuring advice and secured new and replacement capital for mid-sized companies across the U.S. and Canada.