In March 1997, Generation acquired a controlling-interest in LVI in a leveraged buyout with management. Generation worked closely with Burt Fried and his management team to build LVI though both organic growth and add-on acquisitions. LVI went though a difficult period in the late 1990’s, but we remained steadfast in our vision and provided strategic guidance, capital and financial expertise to help the company through these issues and set the stage for the next phase of growth. LVI invested heavily in systems and technologies to speed up the flow of project information and thereby tightly control labor costs and effectively manage and bid on hundreds of simultaneous projects across the United States. Even in this “industrial” services company, Generation and management believed that information technology was a key competitive advantage and this proved out during the tenure of our ownership as LVI increased margins, more than doubled revenues and put enormous pressure on competitors lacking these systems.