Houston, Texas-based Enpro Group® has announced its change in ownership. Co-founders David Dickey and Kent LeMonte have sold their shares of the company to Chris Weinhardt, Gary Neumann, Patrick Keeley, Corey Kaeser and David Wood. Weinhardt will now serve as the company’s chief operating officer.

“Selling the company to our management team has always been our goal,” says Dickey. “I have truly enjoyed all the relationships I’ve built over the years and a lot of special memories were created during my 35 years in the industry. These guys will continue to grow the Enpro name and carry on its legacy.”

LeMonte will serve as a sales consultant and project manager for Enpro.

“David and I are very pleased with how we, as a company, were able to grow and adapt to changes,” says LeMonte. “We started this company in 1981 and are very proud of everything we were able to accomplish. The new ownership group has the vision and experience to take the company to new heights and I wish them all the success in the world.”

“This had been their succession plan; they felt they had taken the company as far as they could,” says Weinhardt. “They decided they were ready to move on to new projects.”

“My role isn’t really going to change other than now I’ll be responsible for the day-to-day of the company as well as running the marketing for each division,” he says. “It’s kind of been described as a changing of the guard. We’ve made a youth movement. It’s bittersweet letting go for them. Both of them have been described as early pioneers. They were one of the first distributors to pave the way and bring people into the industry.”

“This plan really started in 2007 when Gary Newman, Patrick Keeley and I bought 5 percent for a collective 15 percent of the company,” Weinhardt adds. “That kind of got the wheels in motion.”

With Weinhardt taking over as the company’s CEO, Neumann will remain vice president of finance, Keeley will continue to run Enpro Retail Services, Kaeser will run Enpro Contracting and Wood will continue to run the FirstCut Program.

“We had some very good business role models to learn from,” says Weinhardt. “We couldn’t have asked for better coaches. They helped position the company for growth and now it’s time for us to create new successes through our shared strategic goals.”

Weinhardt says one of the company’s upcoming objectives is to expand its software program market.

“One of the biggest opportunities for growth is our FirstCut program; we’re really buckling down and focusing on developing new markets for that program,” he says.

Weinhardt adds that customers will see little impact on service as a result of the switchover.

“We’re still servicing all of our customers. It’s a seamless transition. Enpro has had a reputation for being customer-service driven and that’s still our primary focus—making sure our customers are taken care of. We’re hands on and we’re in it for the best interest of our customers. That vision and that qualification aren’t going to change. That’s far too ingrained in our core purpose.”