HES Facilities Management (“HES”) is an education-focused facilities management provider that partners primarily with K-12 school districts and higher education institutions. The company provides a full suite of onsite and managed services across 30 states in the U.S., including custodial and janitorial services, groundskeeping, and maintenance and operations, designed to support safe, clean, and well-run learning environments. HES has built a national footprint through meaningful organic growth initiatives, targeted acquisitions and a service model tailored to the unique requirements of educational customers.
HES Facilities Management
Company Overview
The company emphasizes disciplined transition planning, onsite leadership, and workforce recruiting and retention—key differentiators in a labor-intensive, mission-critical end market. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, HES has expanded its geographic reach and service capabilities through strategic acquisitions, including SMS Facility Services, WFF, and ABBCO, while maintaining a focused strategy centered on long-term customer partnerships.
Deal Background
HES Facilities Holdings was formed in 2020 as a platform investment aligned with Nautic’s Navigator strategy, targeting the highly fragmented K-12 and higher education facilities management market. Nautic’s thesis for building HES leveraged the playbook and success of GCA Services in a market that we believed continued to be ripe for market share gains by a specialized, mid-tier provider.
The company was built in partnership with an experienced management team with deep sector expertise, including leaders who previously played a central role in scaling GCA Services. The platform was established through the acquisition of three family-owned businesses and supplemented by strong organic growth during our hold.
Nautic Value-Add
Following formation, Nautic partnered closely with management to execute on the value creation plan of solidifying HES as one of the leading service-focused facilities management platforms in the U.S.
This included supporting the development of a seasoned leadership team led by Nautic executive relationships Buddy Helton and Charlie Spencer, who each bring more than three decades of experience in education facilities management, as well as recruiting additional senior leaders across operations, sales and finance.
Once the culture, operating cadence and infrastructure was formalized, HES in conjunction with Nautic invested significant resources in building out the sales and marketing team to fully support and launch the HES Facilities brand. HES generated meaningful new sales including a number of large, anchor accounts from both first-time outsourced customers and strategic takeaways. In parallel with these organic growth initiatives, Nautic supported the build-out of the company’s M&A playbook, successfully executing and integrating three acquisitions including establishing the commercial vertical to complement the core education market.
I have worked with the Nautic team since 2004 with GCA Services Group, since 2017 with ESS, since 2020 with HES and since 2025 with Cenavera—four education-focused services companies. Across each partnership, Nautic has demonstrated a collaborative, strategic approach to planning and value creation, resulting in significant growth and strong outcomes for our shareholders.
Certain statements about Nautic made by portfolio company executives herein are intended to illustrate Nautic’s business relationship with such persons, including with respect to Nautic’s facilities as a business partner, rather than Nautic’s capabilities or expertise with respect to investment advisory services. Portfolio company executives were not compensated in connection with their participation, although they generally receive compensation and investment opportunities in connection with their portfolio company roles, and in certain cases are also owners of portfolio company securities and/or investors in Nautic-sponsored vehicles. Such compensation and investments subject participants to potential conflicts of interest in making the statements herein.