Pace American Auction

[Greg Hill]

When I was up at Pace in the spring I talked to a lady in the office when I first got there and was arranging to have some work done on my trailer. I asked her how business was and she told me it was okay, but it was easy to read between the lines and that things weren't going so well. She also told me the original owners had sold Pace to an investment company a couple of years before and that things hadn't been the same since. The tough economy caused a lot of business to fail, however you would have to think a company like Pace could have made it with the original owners in place.

These investment firms go in and buy companies with borrowed money and unrealistic profit expectations and a lot of times end up failing. I have seen over the years a lot of well run family businesses sold to investor groups that didn't make it and I would bet Pace is just another one. More overhead with large interest payments and top management that is focused on short term profit is a recipe for failure.