The State Group Industrial (USA) Limited (The State Group), a portfolio company of funds managed by Apollo, announced on September 8 that it has acquired Mel-Kay Electric Co. (MelKay), an Evansville, Indiana-based MEP contractor. Terms were not disclosed. Berenson & Company advised The State Group.
The asset.
MelKay is an Evansville MEP contractor serving industrial and commercial customers across southern Indiana, western Kentucky, and southern Illinois. The release says it has more than 400 union tradesmen focused on electrical, mechanical, and plumbing construction and maintenance, plus HVAC, fire, security, communication, and safety systems.
Preferred-vendor relationships named in the release include Berry Global, Deaconess Health, Sabic, Toyota, and others. Chad Thompson, MelKay’s president, stays in the role and framed the deal as joining State Group for the next chapter of growth for employees and customers. Scott Hartig, MelKay’s CEO and a third-generation family leader, said Melvin Kallenbach founded the company in 1951 “in the back office of his in-laws’ small hotel and restaurant,” and that selling a three-generation business was not easy — but that continuity of leadership and the opportunities under State Group gave him confidence in the future.
The platform.
The State Group is headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee. Founded in 1961, it describes itself as a North American multi-trade industrial and specialty services contractor providing electrical and mechanical trade services to Fortune 100 customers in power generation, automotive, datacenter, ecommerce, oil and gas, communications, metals, and transportation. The company says it performs more than eight million man-hours annually of retrofit, maintenance, construction, and emergency work, with offices across the United States and Canada.
Apollo funds acquired a majority stake in The State Group from Blue Wolf Capital in November 2024, with Blue Wolf retaining a minority stake alongside existing management shareholders. The MelKay purchase is the latest build-out under that ownership.
Michael Lampert, State Group’s executive chairman, called MelKay aligned on quality of service, teamwork, and customer satisfaction, and welcomed the MelKay team into the State Group family on the strength of more than 75 years of local brand equity.
Apollo densifying industrial MEP.
MelKay’s disclosed end markets and preferred-vendor list are industrial and institutional: manufacturing, healthcare, and blue-chip plant work across the Tri-State. State Group’s own customer set is Fortune 100 industrial — power, auto, datacenter, ecommerce, oil and gas. The buyer thesis is multi-trade density next to those plants and campuses, with a union bench that can run construction and maintenance under one roof.
MelKay also steps past pure electrical. The PR frames a full MEP shop — electrical, mechanical, and plumbing, plus HVAC, fire, and life-safety systems — which is the profile industrial platforms underwrite when they want one contractor covering plant construction and maintenance rather than stitching single-trade bolts.
What it means.
For commercial and industrial MEP owners in the Midwest, two practical points.
First, Apollo-backed industrial consolidators are competing for the same union multi-trade assets that public strategics chase. MelKay’s story — 75 years, 400+ tradesmen, preferred-vendor status with Toyota and Deaconess — is the profile those buyers underwrite when terms stay private.
Second, operating continuity still sells. The PR keeps Chad Thompson as president and puts Hartig’s family history on the release. Sellers who care about the shop surviving the check are getting that language from industrial platforms.
State Group is likely to keep acquiring in markets where its Fortune 100 customers already operate. For commercial and industrial MEP owners in southern Indiana, western Kentucky, and southern Illinois, that means continued interest from Apollo-backed platforms and from public consolidators — often on deals where the purchase price is never disclosed.
Apollo, November 18, 2024 (State Group majority stake) →
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