ScentAir, a portfolio company of Parthenon Capital Partners, has acquired Brandaroma, a provider of scent marketing products and services.
Scent marketing is the use of smells and aromas to strengthen the connection between a customer and a brand to help sell products. Scent marketing is one of the newer frontiers in marketing strategy, and it is becoming more widely used by companies to differentiate their products and bolster their sales. As an example, healthcare providers are now promoting the use of scent marketing, using lavender or eucalyptus more traditionally used in aromatherapy or in a spa environment, as they found these fragrances to be conducive to making waiting rooms less traumatic and giving a calming environment for the patients.
Brandaroma has operations throughout Asia, with particular strength in Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China and Australia, as well as in the United Kingdom and the United States. In the US, Brandaroma’s scent services are marketed under the AromaSys brand name. The company has customers in the gaming, hospitality, retail, financial services, property management, leisure, healthcare, and travel sectors. Brandaroma is based northwest of London in Northampton, UK (www.brandaroma.com).
ScentAir, according to Parthenon, is the largest scent marketing company in the world and the company’s customers operate in a wide range of industry sectors in more than 100 countries. ScentAir is based in Charlotte with additional offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Macau; Toulouse (southern France); London and Madrid (www.scentair.com).
“The acquisition of Brandaroma will extend our position as the market leader in this exciting industry and will make ScentAir faster, stronger and more responsive in order to better support our clients all over the world,” said Andrew Kindfuller, ScentAir President and CEO. Parthenon acquired ScentAir in January 2014 in partnership with Mr. Kindfuller. Earlier in his career he was a Vice President with International Flavors & Fragrances.
“By combining Brandaroma’s product offerings and years of industry expertise with the technology, reach and resources of ScentAir we will further expand our service footprint and accelerate our growth,” said Brian Edwards, ScentAir’s Chief Revenue Officer.
Parthenon invests in middle market companies with enterprise values of $35 million to $500 million that are active in financial services, healthcare services and business services. The firm was founded in 1998 and has 23 investment professionals. Parthenon has offices in Boston and San Francisco (www.parthenoncapitalpartners.com).
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | March 7, 2017
