Contract manufacturer Knowlton Development Corporation (KDC/ONE) has agreed to acquire Zobele Group, a manufacturer of home and air care products, from Doughty Hanson & Co.
Doughty Hanson, a London-based private equity firm, acquired Zobele from its founding family – who maintained a minority equity position – in December 2006. Zobele was founded in Italy in 1919 and in the early years, its main activity was the manufacture of flypaper.
Today, Zobele Group is a contract manufacturer of air fresheners, insecticides and repellents, fabric softeners and detergents, and personal care products including cosmetics, deodorants, and fragrances. Zobele provides its products to more than 130 customers under 150 brands including many large multinational consumer goods companies including Reckitt Benckiser, Procter & Gamble, and Henkel.
In addition to plants in Italy, Zobele has manufacturing operations in China, the United States, Mexico, India, Brazil and Bulgaria and has just more than 5,000 employees. Zobele is headquartered northeast of Milan in Trento, Italy and is led by CEO Roberto Schianchi. Post-closing, Mr. Schianchi and the current management team will continue to run the Zobele business under the KDC/ONE umbrella, and Zobele’s headquarters will remain in Italy.
KDC/ONE is a contract manufacturer of regulated and non-regulated personal care products including lotions, soaps, fragrances, cosmetics and deodorants. The company also manufactures home care products (disinfectants, cleaners, and detergents), industrial products (floor waxes, protectants, cleaners, degreasers, and disinfectants), and auto care products (car waxes, protectants, cleaners, and air care).
Cornell Capital and HarbourVest acquired KDC/ONE from Novacap in December 2018. At that time, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Investissement Québec (IQ) rolled over significant stakes of their equity as part of the transaction. Both CDPQ and IQ co-invested with Novacap on its buy of KDC/ONE in October 2014.
“As a market leader in its categories, Zobele is the right partner for us as we look to embark on our next chapter of strategic growth,” said Nicholas Whitley, CEO of KDC/ONE. “With a truly scaled international footprint and customer base, the combined company will drive unparalleled innovation for our partners and significant expansion into key geographic and end markets.”
KDC/ONE, founded in 2002, has approximately 7,000 employees and is headquartered near Montreal in Longueuil, Québec with 18 operating facilities throughout North America, the UK, France and the Czech Republic.
“This strategic and highly complementary transaction positions KDC/ONE for continued success as a global brand partner that can deliver bespoke innovation at an accelerated pace,” said Justine Cheng, chair of the KDC/ONE board of directors and a partner at Cornell Capital. “We are pleased to continue to support KDC/ONE as it partners with Zobele to continue building the company’s platform as a global one-stop-shop for consumer goods companies across the beauty, personal care and household products categories.”
Earlier this year, KDC/ONE completed its merger with HCT Group, a California-based contract manufacturer of cosmetics products. Cornell Capital and HarbourVest remain as the company’s majority owner.
Cornell Capital was founded in 2013 by Henry Cornell, the former Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs’ Merchant Banking Division, to invest in companies in the consumer, energy, financial and industrial sectors. In June 2018, the firm held a final closing of its inaugural private equity fund, Cornell Capital Partners LP, with total capital commitments of $1.3 billion. The firm has offices in New York and Hong Kong.
HarbourVest invests in venture capital, buyout, mezzanine debt, credit, and real estate through primary fund investments, secondary purchases, and direct co-investments. The firm has more than 500 employees, including 125 investment professionals, located in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. HarbourVest is headquartered in Boston with additional offices in Beijing, Bogotá, Hong Kong, London, Seoul, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, and Toronto.
Debt financing for the buy of Zobele is being led by UBS Securities and Jefferies Group. Guggenheim Securities is the financial advisor to Zobele, and Jefferies Group is the financial advisor to KDC/ONE.
© 2020 Private Equity Professional | February 20, 2020
Seaport Capital has partnered with the founders and operators of Linen King to acquire the company from Cimarron Healthcare Capital.
“We’re excited to partner with the Linen King team,” said Mr. Tamashunas. “Linen King’s business model and approach of staying regionally-focused in a highly fragmented industry, maintaining long-term customer contracts, and being led by its founders aligns well with Seaport’s investing strategy.”
Salt Lake City-based 
“Linen King’s impressive operating tenure and recent growth is a function of Leonard and his team’s relentless commitment to high-quality service,” said James Nadauld, a managing partner and founder at CHC. “We are thrilled by what the company has accomplished and have every confidence in its ability to execute on what lies ahead.”
Cadence Aerospace, a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners since November 2017, has acquired Premier Processing, a provider of surface finishing services to companies operating in the aerospace and defense sectors.
The company has specific capabilities with difficult-to-machine geometries, hard metal alloys, and very large aerostructures. Customers of Cadence are major OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers and include Boeing, Airbus, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and United Technologies. Cadence, led by CEO Thomas Hutton, has operations in California, Arizona, Washington, Massachusetts and Mexico and is headquartered in Anaheim, California.
“The acquisition of Premier allows us to significantly expand Cadence’s key capability set into the attractive special processing market, which has been a long-standing investment focus for both Arlington Capital and Cadence,” said Peter Manos, a managing partner at Arlington Capital. “Furthermore, we plan to invest significantly to further expand Premier’s special processing capabilities and will work with Brad and his team to roll-out special processing capabilities across the broader Cadence footprint.”
Align Capital Partners has closed its second fund, Align Capital Partners Fund II LP and Align Capital Partners Fund II-A LP (together ACP II), at the combined hard cap of $450 million.
“We appreciate the continued support from our existing investors and are grateful for the strong interest from the new limited partners joining us in ACP II,” said Mr. Dyke. “ACP continues to attract high-quality investors whose partnership and trust are essential to the success of our firm.”
“ACP has built our brand around being disciplined growth investors in the true lower middle market, and we continue to believe in the potential it offers,” said Mr. Langley. “There is no change to our focus in ACP II. Our willingness to start small and aggressively invest in a company’s people, processes, and systems has resulted in a distinctive portfolio in ACP I that we’re proud to own.”
“Entering our fourth year as a firm, we are proud of the team we’ve built at ACP and the partnerships formed with our portfolio companies,” said Mr. Jones. “We look forward to the new management partnerships we will form in ACP II, where we can utilize our experience and network of operating resources to help more companies achieve their growth objectives.”
KKR has formed Gamma Biosciences, a new investment platform to acquire a portfolio of companies in the bioprocessing technology sector.
Gamma has already made its first acquisition with the November 2019 buy of Prometic Bioseparations from 
“We are very excited to welcome Astrea and Univercells to the Gamma platform,” said Mr. Gunnison. “Each of these businesses has developed leading technologies in its respective field and harbors world-class expertise in the area of bioprocess. Together, they will provide us with a foothold in both upstream and downstream process from which to build.”
“We are thrilled to be working with Matt and the highly experienced team at Gamma at a time when there is growing demand for advanced biologic therapies and a rapidly advancing field of biomanufacturing,” said Kugan Sathiyanandarajah, a director on KKR’s health care team and the head of KKR’s European health care investing efforts.”
C.J. Foods, a maker of specialty dry pet food for US super-premium brands, has agreed to acquire pet food maker American Nutrition. C.J. Foods has been a portfolio company of J. H. Whitney Capital Partners since June 2014. The firm acquired the business from Trinity Hunt Partners.
C.J. Foods employs nearly 500 at its six processing plants — two in Pawnee City, Nebraska; two in Bern, Kansas; one in Baxter Springs, Kansas; and one in Brownwood, Texas — with a combined total of 620,000 sq. ft. of plant space from which the company produces nearly half a billion pounds per year of extruded pet foods and treats. C.J. Foods was founded in 1985 by the husband and wife team of Chuck and Joyce Kuenzi and is headquartered in Bern, Kansas.
Stir Foods Group, a portfolio company of Wind Point Partners, has acquired Celtrade Canada, from Argosy Partners.
Today, Stir Foods is a custom manufacturer of soups, sauces, dressings, and fresh salsas for both retail and foodservice customers. The company is headquartered in Orange, California and operates five California-located SQF production facilities.
According to Wind Point, the combination of Stir and Celtrade creates a more diversified custom sauce and dressing platform with redundant manufacturing capabilities across multiple geographies. “The acquisition of Celtrade has become a key component of our value creation plan and boosts Stir’s ability to serve our customers with an enhanced culinary staff and a more diversified geographic footprint,” said Joe Lawler, a managing director with Wind Point.
Chicago-based 
“We are proud to have been a part of Celtrade’s evolution to become a leader in its niche and we are confident that the combination of Stir Foods, Chris Bouchard and his team will build on Celtrade’s already impressive track record,” said Larry Klar, a partner at Argosy.
Pamlico Capital has held a first and final close of Pamlico Capital V LP (PC V) at the fund’s hard cap with total commitments of $1.4 billion. The new fund was oversubscribed with demand from existing and new investors significantly exceeding its original $1.25 billion target.
“We are honored to have raised PC V so quickly and with such strong demand, including participation from nearly all PC IV investors and from a number of new investors,” said Art Roselle, a partner at Pamlico. “PC V will continue our history of partnering with talented managers, often as a company’s first institutional investor, to accelerate growth and ultimately build industry-leading businesses.”
“We are grateful not only for the success of PC V but also for the confidence investors have placed in us over the years,” said Eric Eubank, a partner at Pamlico. “We’ve maintained our focus and delivered consistently strong returns across numerous cycles since 1988, and through PC V, we will look to capitalize on what we continue to believe are attractive opportunities to partner with talented managers and build great companies going forward.”
Center Rock Capital Partners has acquired TAG Manufacturing, a designer and manufacturer of attachments used in construction and earth-moving applications.
Center Rock makes control and non-control equity investments in North American-based industrial manufacturing, industrial services and industrial distribution companies that have revenues of $25 million to $500 million and EBITDA of up to $50 million (including negative EBITDA). TAG is Center Rock’s fifth platform investment out of its first fund, Center Rock Capital Partners Fund I LP, which closed in 2018 with an oversubscribed $580 million of limited partner capital.
“TAG is a superb brand with a reputation for exceptional service, product quality and leadership – all attributes we look for in our investments,” said David Matthews, a principal at Center Rock. “In a short period of time, Gary and Terry have created an incredible and durable business with great momentum that we are excited to build upon.”
The Courtney Group and Centerfield Capital Partners have acquired the medical device repair and services business of Tenacore Holdings.
Joining Courtney and Centerfield on this transaction is Jim Willett, a healthcare executive who has been named as Tenacore’s chief executive officer. “Tenacore has an impressive and highly skilled team in place,” said Mr. Willett. “As we execute our strategic growth plan, we intend to expand and complement the existing team, with the goal of providing an increased breadth of products and services to our customers. We look forward to pursuing growth opportunities that the company did not previously have the resources to pursue.”
Indianapolis-based 
