Anatomy of an Acquisition

Since 1972, when Dick and Sally Pilsner founded D&S Dental Laboratory, the lab has grown into a 103-person, full service operation with five locations. Although the culture of the lab remains true to its history as a small, family-run business, D&S is now owned by a nine-person ownership team including the Pilsners and seven employees who were given the opportunity to purchase stakes in the business.

About eight years ago, D&S acquired two laboratories, rolling one into its Waunakee, WI, facility and keeping the other as a separate location. But D&S hasn’t stopped there; the laboratory is again in an active acquisition mode and, this year alone, purchased two other laboratories that function as stand-alone businesses in their original locations. Here, LMT brings you inside one of those transactions: the purchase of Hootman Dental Laboratory, a 10-person operation 80 miles away from Waunakee in Rockford, IL.

THE STRATEGY

Within the last two...