Macnaught has acquired LockNLube, according to a LinkedIn post by Jay Boren, the company's former owner. The deal was completed in 2024, the post states. The purchase price was not disclosed in the sources.
Boren described LockNLube's origins in the post. He said the business was tiny and run out of its founders' living room outside Hanover, New Hampshire. It sold basically one product, a $30 grease coupler, supplied by a South African manufacturer that owned the patent, sold to the business non-exclusively, and was threatening to cut it off.
Boren said he found LockNLube while he was an MBA student at Tuck and started there as its summer intern. The founder asked him to buy the business that first summer, but the deal did not close for another 18 months. During that time, Boren said, he worked in the business, hired its first employees, moved it out of the founder's house, and built trust with the seller. By closing, he said, he knew the business better than anyone.
Boren said he bootstrapped LockNLube over the next seven and a half years into a direct-to-consumer tools brand with more than 250 products in its catalog. He described the sale to Macnaught as a life-changing exit. Macnaught is described in the post as a family-owned Australian manufacturer.