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Jerry Fields
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Company · acquired by Cobalt Service Partners

Industrial Door Company

Founded 1985 in Rancho Cordova, CA by Sy and Jerry Fields · 1 branch (Sacramento) · sold to Cobalt, Apr 2024

Page as of Sep 30, 2026The sale ↓

Legacy

The founder’s story · from the public record

Industrial Door Company began in 1985 when Sy Fields, who had tried retirement and could not stick with it, bought a small commercial door company in Rancho Cordova and asked his 19-year-old son Jerry to run it with him. Jerry says he "jumped at the chance." The first work was installing roll-up doors for manufacturers and at mini-storage facilities; repair work for those same customers followed, along with relationships with the area's developers. Jerry Fields, Cobalt essay (May 2024) · Cobalt company page

Over the next two decades the company added pedestrian doors, glass and aluminum storefronts, glazing, automatic doors and security access, so that by the time Sy actually retired in the early 2000s IDC was a full-service door operation. Today its site lists everything from high-speed and fire-rated doors to dock levelers, truck restraints and commercial gates, with 24/7 emergency service and a maintenance program, serving Sacramento and sixteen surrounding communities. Jerry has been candid that the early years were a learning curve: with no accounting team, he taught himself bookkeeping and "got plenty of firsthand lessons in what not to do." Jerry Fields, Cobalt essay · IDC website

The turning point, in Jerry's telling, came about a decade before the sale when he finally answered emails from Josef Roberts of E Squared, who ran a peer group for door companies. Learning from other owners led IDC to formalise how it treated its people: handbooks, org charts, PTO policies and retirement plans, and a practice of putting every new technician in the field with several team leaders and sending staff to manufacturers' training schools. "We decided to get big by acting big," he wrote, and the result was a team of about 50 with many 10-, 15-, 20- and 25-year veterans. The careers page still leads with 100% employer-paid employee medical and a 4% 401(k) match. Jerry Fields, Cobalt essay · IDC careers page

The customer base that grew up around that team ranges from wineries, schools, fire stations and airplane hangars to Genentech's Vacaville plant, where IDC says it was chosen over larger national firms to maintain gates, safety doors and dock equipment, and to Sacramento data centers. In August 2024 IDC announced it had met ISN's contractor-safety standard, a qualification many California agencies require of vendors. IDC news: Genentech · IDC news: ISN

Jerry started thinking about selling a couple of years before the deal, after 39 years, unsure "how much more I had in me" and aware that what had made IDC the top company in Sacramento would not be what grew it from there. The first firms that approached him wanted to take the business apart, which he called a nonstarter: "Our team members are the reason we've succeeded." Meeting Cobalt's Anthony Gonzalez and Tyler Hoffman changed that. When he challenged their praise as flattery, they showed him they had analysed his own data and found IDC's staff turnover far below the industry average, which he had never realised. He says he chose Cobalt because he could look his employees in the eye and know their future was bright. Jerry Fields, Cobalt essay · Cobalt company page: Why Cobalt?

The team

The people who built it

IDC's own site does not carry a team page; the people it names publicly are the founders, technicians thanked in customer reviews (Chris V., Aaron, TJ) and the post-sale CEOs named by Cobalt.

Jerry Fields (left) and his father, Sy Fields (right)
Jerry Fields (left) and his father, Sy Fields (right) · source
Header image from Cobalt's Jerry Fields essay
Header image from Cobalt's Jerry Fields essay · source
IDC team photo on Cobalt's company page
IDC team photo on Cobalt's company page · source
Jerry and Sy Fields (Alpine Investors republication)
Jerry and Sy Fields (Alpine Investors republication) · source
Family in the business (as the company itself lists them)
  • Sy Fields · Co-founder (1985), Jerry's father; retired early 2000s · source
  • Jerry Fields · Co-founder, CEO/Owner · source

In the community

What they gave back · on the record
  • IDC met ISN's contractor-safety qualification in 2024, documenting its safety programs, accident protocols and OSHA standing, and framed it as a commitment to the California community it serves. IDC news, Aug 2024
  • The company keeps a 'Past Events' page listing an AFE (Association for Facilities Engineering) golf event. IDC past events
  • IDC's post-sale CEO Ryan Shields appears in the BOMA Sacramento (Building Owners and Managers Association) member directory under the company's name. BOMA Sacramento member listing
  • Jerry Fields credits the E Squared door-company peer group run by Josef Roberts with reshaping how IDC treated its people, and says he hopes Cobalt's companies can do for each other what that group did for him. Jerry Fields, Cobalt essay
  • An annual company fishing trip is a tradition Jerry asked Cobalt to keep before signing; he says it was booked as soon as the deal closed. Jerry Fields, Cobalt essay

In their words

7 public statements by the founder and team
  • 2024-05-16
    Jerry Fields on Leadership, Retirement, and Choosing Cobalt essay
    Jerry Fields · cobaltsp.com (News & Insights) · First-person essay: founding with his father at 19, the 'ups and downs' of learning finance, the E Squared peer group, why every other bidder wanted to dismantle IDC, how Cobalt's turnover analysis won him over, and his plan to work one month full-time then five months part-time before retiring.
  • 2025-08-07
    As One Door Closes: IDC Founder Jerry Fields on Leadership, Retirement and Choosing Cobalt Service Partners essay
    Jerry Fields · Alpine Investors, Stories · Republication of the same essay on the sponsor's site with a Jerry-and-Sy photo; adds the line that Alpine calls its approach 'PeopleFirst' and that Jerry had never used the term but saw IDC's team the same way.
  • 2024
    Founding Story / Why Cobalt? (Industrial Door Company page) post
    Jerry Fields · cobaltsp.com (Our Companies) · Two short statements: the company's arc from mini-storage doors in Rancho Cordova to a market leader across dock equipment, high-performance and hollow-metal doors, storefronts, ballistic protection and automatic doors; and that employee welfare was the top consideration in choosing Cobalt.
  • undated
    About Us post
    Jerry Fields · industrialdoorcompany.com · Owner's letter in Jerry's name: serving Northern California since 1985, a pledge of 24-hour response and getting the job right the first time, signed 'Jerry Fields, CEO/Owner'. Still live in September 2026.
  • 2024-04-09
    Cobalt Continues Momentum With Four More Acquisitions press
    Tyler Hoffman; Anthony Gonzalez · cobaltsp.com; also Business Wire, Alpine newsroom, SDM, SSI · Buyer's announcement of ADW, Toepfer, IDC and HSS. Describes IDC as founded 1985 by Sy and Jerry Fields, Jerry 'most recently as CEO', focused on overhead doors and dock equipment. Quotes are Hoffman and Gonzalez only.
  • 2024-08-15
    Industrial Door Company Earns Elite Safety Qualification post
    Industrial Door Company · industrialdoorcompany.com (News) · Company post on meeting ISN standards and the California agencies that require it.
  • 2024-08-15
    Industrial Door Company Wins Maintenance Contract for Genentech post
    Industrial Door Company · industrialdoorcompany.com (News) · Company post on being chosen over larger national companies for preventive maintenance at Genentech's Vacaville facility.

Founder Q&A

In their own words · by email · published with permission

We’d like Jerry Fields to tell this story in their own words. Ran this company, or built it alongside the founder? Ten questions by email, answered at your pace, published only with your OK.

The sale

As both sides told it · on the public record
Announced Apr 9, 2024 By Cobalt (Business Wire); Alpine newsroom Deal #4 for Cobalt Service Partners Founder left Business Wire, Apr 9, 2024
What Cobalt Service Partners said

Cobalt announced IDC on April 9, 2024 as one of four add-ons that extended the platform to the West Coast and into overhead doors; Tyler Hoffman said the four founders had 'trusted us as the long-term home for their businesses' and Anthony Gonzalez said Cobalt's focus is removing roadblocks to scale, especially recruiting and retaining technicians. Cobalt's company page dates the acquisition to April 2024.

Announcement
What the founder said

Jerry Fields said he had been thinking about selling for a couple of years, rejected bidders who wanted to break IDC up, and chose Cobalt after they showed him they understood his team (turnover far below industry average) and agreed to keep traditions like the annual fishing trip. He planned one month full-time and five months part-time alongside new CEO Ryan Shields, then retirement with his wife, travel and a new granddaughter, 'cheering on IDC from the sidelines'.

Source

Terms on the record: Nothing public. No price, structure, rollover or earn-out disclosed by Cobalt, Alpine or the founder. Advisors: None named for the seller; Cobalt's counsel across the platform is Kirkland & Ellis (named in the Digi release, not the IDC one).

What happened after

Public signals since the sale · dated
  • 2024-04-09
    Cobalt announces the acquisition (with ADW, Toepfer and HSS); Cobalt's company page lists 'Acquisition Date: April 2024'. source
  • 2024-05-16
    Cobalt publishes Jerry Fields' essay naming Ryan Shields as IDC's new CEO and setting out Jerry's six-month wind-down to retirement. source
  • 2024-06 to 2024-09
    IDC's website is rebuilt (image uploads dated June to September 2024; new logo files Aug 2024). The rebuilt site still carries the 'Jerry Fields, CEO/Owner' letter and 'Family owned and managed for 38 years', and does not mention Cobalt anywhere. source
  • 2024-08-15
    Company posts ISN safety qualification and Genentech maintenance contract on its news page. source
  • 2025-08-07
    Alpine Investors republishes the Fields essay as a 'Story' on its own site. source
  • 2026-09-28
    Cobalt's team page now lists Tad Henderson as 'CEO, Industrial Door Company' (an operating executive from industrial sectors); Ryan Shields, the CEO named in May 2024, no longer appears. No announcement of the change was found. source
  • 2026-09-28
    Careers page lists four open Sacramento roles (door installation technician, journeyman/lead technician, lead commercial glazier, one untitled). source
  • 2026-08 (Yelp snippet date)
    Yelp listing shows 25 reviews and 25 photos; site header shows a 4.74 rating badge (checked Sept 28, 2026). Pre-sale counts not captured, so no before/after comparison. source

Then and now

Founder and leadership
Jerry Fields
Co-founder, CEO/Owner (1985 to 2024)
Left Retired after a six-month transition (per his May 2024 essay); still named as CEO/Owner on the company's About page source
Sy Fields
Co-founder (1985), retired early 2000s
Left source
Ryan Shields
CEO of IDC, installed by Cobalt at close (May 2024)
Now No longer on Cobalt's team page as of Sept 2026; a search snippet shows him listed as 'Operating Executive at Cobalt Service Partners' on an aggregator org chart source
Tad Henderson
Now CEO, Industrial Door Company (Cobalt team page, Sept 2026) source

Companies Cobalt Service Partners also bought

20 on the public record

All 21 transactions →

Sources

Everything above, dated Sep 30, 2026

Unverified at publish: Whether Jerry Fields has fully retired (no public update since the May 2024 essay); when and why Ryan Shields was replaced by Tad Henderson; whether licence #1118556 is a new post-sale entity (CSLB lookup is form-only and was not run; a bizprofile listing suggests an 'Industrial Door Company, LLC' filing); Google rating and count (not fetchable); BBB rating (blocked); the meaning of a second phone number (949-534-6777) in the site's booking widget.