David Miller is a brilliant entrepreneur with a proven 20-year history of driving full-cycle mergers and acquisitions. Before joining NCA, he had already acquired, managed, and sold three core businesses, and, in May of this year, he successfully acquired two more businesses in Canada, marking the first Canadian acquisitions in NCA’s ETA program. We sat down with David to learn more about his impressive career trajectory and his experience in the NCA program.
David Miller was born and raised in Montreal, Canada, and set his career in motion when he moved to New York City to pursue his law degree. Everything seemed to be falling into place just as he had planned: after receiving his Juris Doctor from Cardozo School of Law, and passing the rigorous New York State Bar exam, he began working for a medium-sized New York law firm. But very quickly, David realized that the well-defined career path he had laid out for himself left him feeling unfulfilled. “Working at the law firm made it clear: it was just not who I wanted to be,” he said. “I found myself wanting to be the guy on the other side of the phone call.”
David decided to return to Montreal and pursue entrepreneurship. He was armed with a solid understanding of corporate law and all the problem-solving skills he had learned in law school, and in 1999 he bought a small business with a friend: a gluten-free food company named Glutino. Very few people in North America knew about gluten intolerances at that time, but David had sensed an opportunity that would shape the rest of his entrepreneurial career. He went on to work 10 years at Glutino, now owned by ConAgra Brands, growing the company to become a leading brand in gluten-free foods.
David was hooked. “After that, all I wanted was to go do it again,” he explained. “I wanted to buy another business and try to grow it.”
David searched for his next opportunity and found it in an entirely different industry, acquiring a stake in a family business that manufactured store fixtures. After operating and growing that business for three years, he was approached by a local private equity firm, and their offer allowed him to launch yet another search. Once again David transitioned into a new sector, partnering with a private equity firm to buy a majority stake in Utility Garments, a major Canadian uniform provider, from the former owner who was looking to retire. After three years at the helm, David orchestrated the sale of Utility Garments and stayed on to run the Montreal division for another three years until he was once again ready to pursue his next venture. That’s when David discovered NCA.
A STRONG LOCAL NETWORK & A DOUBLE DEAL
“Novastone’s ETA program aligned with everything that I’ve done in the past, so it seemed like a perfect match,” said David. He joined NCA’s program in late 2022, and after about one year of searching, David found his next calling in two quickly-growing Canadian clothing businesses: Chapter One Sportswear Inc., a contemporary women’s fashion company, and Morsam Fashions Inc., which specializes in women’s loungewear and sleepwear. The original founder and owner of Chapter One, Mitchell Goldstein, was looking to bring in a partner and, after about five months of negotiations, David closed the deal on May 1st of this year, marking the first Canadian acquisition in NCA’s history. The double deal is significant, as the addition of Morsam Fashions makes Chapter One Sportswear a significant player in the garment industry with sales of over $100M.
“Closing both deals at the same time was challenging but also very rewarding,” explained David. “I’m working closely with Mitch, who has stayed on as a significant shareholder and who is at work every day. I could not have asked for a better partner and I could not be more excited to get started in this new venture. Now it’s just a question of everything else I have to learn, understand, and then hopefully grow.”
David credited NCA’s support in building an investor base, raising equity, financial modeling and analysis, and investor presentations as a contributing factor to the relatively smooth acquisition process. He also credited his strong local network as a key factor in his successful search. “I actually found the business, which wasn’t even originally for sale, through a common acquaintance who happened to know both me and Mitch,” he explained.
When asked if he had any advice for others considering ETA, David brought up the volatility of the process while also wholeheartedly recommending it for entrepreneurs who are up for the challenge. “With any deal negotiation there are a lot of ups and downs until the very last minute, so closing any deal is incredibly exciting,” he said. “One day you think the deal is for sure closing, and then the next day something comes up and you think the deal might fall apart… But that’s very typical in this type of process because you’re dealing with a buyer and seller, and especially when the founder is involved, since the business is almost like a child to them.”
“Keeping that in mind, I think ETA is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to be the CEO of a company,” added David. “As long as you are able to do it and qualified to do it, I would highly recommend it.”
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For more information about David, please visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmillermontreal/
For more information about Chapter One Sportswear Inc., please visit: https://www.chapter-1.net/
For more information about NCA, please visit: https://novastone-ca.com/index.php