Headquartered in Avon, Ohio, Maroon supplies specialty ingredients to the North American household, industrial & institutional (HI&I), personal care & pharmaceutical, food & nutrition, and coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers (CASE) markets. The company has an annual turnover of approximately $500 million and about 300 employees.

Maroon CEO Terry Hill said it was “a logical decision” to join with Barentz. He added: “The deciding factor was that Barentz is already a global business and this creates tremendous opportunities to strengthen our business in North America and internationally.” Hill and the Maroon management team will continue to manage operations.

The acquisition is expected to bring a series of synergies. “Our product portfolios are very complementary,” said Barentz CEO Hidde van der Wal, noting that there were no conflicts of interest between the two firms. “Maroon Group has significant scale in North America - the biggest economy of the world, where we were small, until today. The combination will immediately make Barentz a leading global distributor with an excellent opportunity to establish new business segments in North America.”

Maroon has been owned by US private equity firm CI Capital Partners, in partnership with the distributor’s management team, since 2014. Under CI’s ownership, Maroon has made 10 acquisitions.

Barentz also has private equity backing, from UK investment group Cinven, which took an undisclosed stake in November 2019.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist