Knight Barry Title is joining the ranks of title companies upping their merger and acquisition games.
The company announced its purchase of Title One, a six-office operation that will strengthen its presence in Minnesota, especially the Minniapolis-St. Paul area. Title One is headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota, and has offices in the state in Apple Valley, Maple Grove, Ramsey, Roseville and Woodbury.
This acquisition brings Knight Barry Title’s total office locations to 13 in the state and 45 employees across Minnesota.
“This is going to help our existing customers, first and foremost, who have deals all around the state and want to stick with one title company to take advantage of the convenience, pricing and service that Knight Barry Title offers,” said Jodi Bach, Knight Barry Title Minnesota state manager. “We’re excited to get the Knight Barry Title name out more in Minnesota and keep growing our footprint here, too.”
Title One Owner Lance Plummer will exit the title industry after a short transition period, but all of his staff members will remain employed after the acquisition.
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“Our same team members are still here; they are just going to have much more support and resources,” Plummer said. “It’s only going to be a better experience for our customers. The vision of COO Craig Haskins and CEO Jeff Green is what sold me. Knight Barry Title is a great organization, and they seem to know everything about the industry when it comes to technology and production.”
With this acquisition, Knight Barry Title also named Amy Kemmerer as the Minneapolis regional manager.
The company has experienced significant growth in recent years. In the first month of 2018, it acquired four title agencies south of the Twin Cities. Since then, it also established operations in Florida and Texas. In total, Knight Barry Title now has 80 offices across five states – Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Florida and Texas and has just gone over the 500 employee mark.
Other title companies are also expanding their presence through an increase in m&a activity. National Title and Escrow, which is based in Dexter, Missouri, recently announced its acquisition of Mississippi County Abstract and Loan, based in Charleston, Missouri.
And at the end of last year, Fidelity National Financial announced it hired a new leader as it expands its presence into the state of Georgia. And Stewart Title picked up its acquisition activity to grow its presence in Alaska.
