The packaging supplier

analysisFlorida's registry lists Hillman Supply Company, Inc. as an active Florida corporation, document number P93000005334, filed on January 19, 1993, with its principal address in Alachua. The trust's complaint states that from 2004 to 2021 Exactech sourced its polyethylene vacuum bags from Hillman, a local company specialising in janitorial supplies, and that Hillman did not manufacture the bags but outsourced them to other manufacturers, some of whom outsourced further; it alleges that Exactech never ran a quality audit or supplier review of Hillman, never audited the packaging's actual manufacturers and never confirmed that Hillman was qualified to supply packaging for the liners. These are allegations in the Settlement Trust’s pending complaint and have not been adjudicated. TPG told a newspaper in 2025 that the packaging issues predated its ownership and that it learned of them in 2021; in the Florida product-liability suits Hillman filed an answer with affirmative defences and a jury demand. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

analysisThe trust alleges that neither TPG nor its advisers interviewed the packaging supplier or visited its warehouse, about 15 minutes from Exactech's headquarters, during due diligence, although its advisers had identified the recently filed Alabama suit raising serious allegations of product defects. It states that by July 22, 2021 Exactech's chief quality and regulatory clinical officer had told others that 20 years of supplier certifications did not mention the EVOH layer, and that a TPG lawyer learned no later than September 2023 that Exactech had been on notice by 2012 of non-compliant certifications from its packaging supplier or suppliers. These are allegations in the Settlement Trust’s pending complaint and have not been adjudicated. ¹