Herff Jones, Inc.

In 1920, Harry Herff and Randall Jones founded the privately-held Herff Jones, Inc. in an old fire engine building on Capitol Avenue in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Herff Jones started out by manufacturing class rings, medals, pins and other emblematic jewelry and over the years has added yearbooks, graduation announcements and accessories, diplomas, caps and gowns, diploma frames, school photography and educational learning materials to the list. In addition, Herff Jones has been contracted to manufacturing some of the nation's most prestigious recognition products, including the Naismith Award, the Spirit Award, robes for many federal and state Supreme Court Justices and numerous collegiate championship rings and awards. Recently these have included the NCAA championship rings at the University of Florida and the Super Bowl XLI rings for the Indianapolis Colts. Herff Jones, Inc. was publicly traded from 1945 until 1973 when it was acquired by Carnation Company. The Company operated as a division of Carnation until July 1985 when Carnation sold Herff Jones' assets to senior management in a leveraged buyout transaction. In November 1989, Herff Jones' employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) purchased just over 30% of the company's common stock from shareholders and pursuant to a plan of recapitalization adopted by Herff Jones' Board of Directors in May 1995, the ESOP purchased substantially all of the company's common stock. Herff Jones's employees sold the company to Charlesbank Capital Partners in October 2014 for $1.5B.