TorQuest Partners has acquired specialty chemical maker Bartek Ingredients.
Bartek manufactures and distributes specialty chemicals primarily used for food and beverage applications. The company’s products include malic acid, maleic anhydride, and fumaric acid for applications in beverages, confectioneries, bakery products, fruit-based products, desserts, personal care, pharmaceuticals, non-food products, and antimicrobials.
Bartek distributes to over 35 countries and employs 115 people across two production facilities in southern Ontario. The company was founded in 1969 and is based in Stoney Creek, ON (www.bartek.ca).
“Bartek is TorQuest’s and its predecessor funds’ sixth chemical platform and reflects our strategy of acquiring leading chemical businesses,” said Matthew Chapman, a Partner at TorQuest. “With Bartek being in our home market, we have followed the company for many years and have tremendous respect for the business, production facilities and its workforce. We are delighted to be partnering with incoming CEO John Burrows and the existing management team, and to provide equity capital to support the next stage of Bartek’s growth.”
“I am excited to be part of the company’s next phase of growth by aggressively expanding Bartek’s commercial team and building upon the recent successes that the company has achieved in growing its production capacity,” said Mr. Burrows. “There is growing global demand for malic acid and Bartek is attractively positioned to capture this growth.”
TorQuest was founded in 2002 and has over C$2 billion of equity capital under management. In July 2016 the firm held an above-target final closing of TorQuest Partners Fund IV at the fund’s hard cap of C$925 million. TorQuest is headquartered in Toronto (www.torquest.com).
© 2018 Private Equity Professional | November 13, 2018
