Oak Hill Capital Partners, New York, announced plans to acquire Safe Fleet Holdings, LLC, a Belton, Mo.-based provider of safety and productivity solutions for fleet vehicles.

“We have tremendous respect for what Safe Fleet has accomplished. The company has built a unique and growing portfolio of market-leading safety and productivity solutions,” says Brian Cherry, a partner at Oak Hill. “We are excited to partner with Safe Fleet to support the company through its next phase of development, as it continues to grow both organically and through strategic acquisitions.”

“Safe Fleet represents an exceptional opportunity to invest in a leader in specialized, niche markets supported by attractive secular tailwinds,” adds John Rachwalski, a partner at Oak Hill. “We are delighted to work with the company’s talented management team to continue to build the Safe Fleet platform.”

“Sterling and a strong management team led by John Knox have transformed the business strategically, operationally and commercially from two small component suppliers to a leader in safety solutions for fleet vehicles,” says Gary Rosenthal, chairman of Safe Fleet’s board of directors. “The creation and sale of Safe Fleet, a business that didn’t exist before Sterling’s initial acquisitions, is a case study in how Sterling rapidly implements its improvement strategies to build winning businesses.”

“Sterling and the Safe Fleet team successfully executed our shared vision to create a leading safety solutions company serving an expanding group of fleet customers,” says John Knox, president and CEO of Safe Fleet. “We believe our new partnership with Oak Hill, a firm that shares our culture of collaborative engagement and continuous improvement, will even further accelerate Safe Fleet’s growth trajectory as a highly differentiated safety and productivity solutions platform.”