Diamond Chemical Adds Nyco Products

A century-old Midwest specialty chemical manufacturer is joining forces with one of the more established names in institutional cleaning chemistry. Diamond Chemical Company, a Graycliff Partners portfolio company, has acquired Nyco Products Company, a manufacturer of specialty cleaning chemicals for janitorial, food processing, healthcare, and education markets.

Nyco was founded in 1920 in Chicago by Vince Nyhan as the Nyhan Company, initially selling bottled water and powdered cleanser before building the business into a broad specialty chemicals platform. Today, the company manufactures more than 450 stock and custom formulations across cleaners, disinfectants, sanitizers, and floor care products for distributors serving facility maintenance, janitorial, food processing, healthcare, and education end markets.

The company’s nationally recognized proprietary brands include Marvalosa, e.logical, Chem-Prix, and Zing. It also operates Building Better Brands, a private chemical branding program that helps distribution customers develop their own labeled product lines.

A group of Nyco employees — including CEO Bob Stahurski Sr., Bob Houston, and Jim Shea — purchased the business in 1985. The company has been headquartered near Chicago in Countryside, Illinois since 1998, when it relocated operations to a new 65,000-square-foot facility.

Mr. Stahurski, built the company’s distributor relationships and trade presence over decades, including serving as president of ISSA (International Sanitary Supply Association) in 2009. He is retiring in connection with the transaction. “The sale of our business to another dynamic company preserves our history and culture while ensuring that our customers continue to receive the same high level of quality, reliability, and service,” said Mr. Stahurski. “In addition, we are excited to gain access to Diamond’s full line of product innovations.”

Diamond manufactures soaps, detergents, and warewash chemicals for hospitality, food service, commercial laundry, and other institutional and industrial end markets, serving more than 1,000 customers across laundry, warewash, housekeeping, floor care, sanitizing, and pool care applications.

A vertically integrated operation, Diamond produces over four million pounds of product weekly from facilities on the East and West coasts. It manufactures its own blow-molded containers and operates automated filling lines, on-premises rail siding, company-owned trucks, and bulk storage to support supply continuity and quality control.

Diamond was founded in 1930 by Jacob Diamond and is today headquartered in Rutherford, New Jersey. Wesley Alves has served as CEO since October 2025, succeeding Harold Diamond — the founder’s grandson — who now serves as a partner and strategic adviser.

“This combination is a transformative step for Diamond,” said Mr. Alves. “Nyco brings deep formulation expertise, a strong brand portfolio, and a Midwest manufacturing footprint that complements our coastal operations. Together, we can offer customers and distributors broader product availability and stronger national service.”

Graycliff invested in Diamond in July 2024. The Nyco acquisition adds a Midwest manufacturing node and an established specialty chemicals distributor network to a platform Graycliff positioned from the outset for add-on acquisitions. The combined company carries more than 200 years of operating history between the two businesses.

“Diamond and Nyco are exceptional businesses with deeply loyal customer bases built over generations,” said Matt Smith, a principal at Graycliff. “We’re excited that the Nyco team is joining Diamond and look forward to supporting the team and the combined organization in this next phase of growth.”

The global industrial and institutional (I&I) cleaning chemicals market generated approximately $80 billion in revenue in 2024, according to Grand View Research, and is projected to reach $167 billion by 2033, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6%. Grand View cites disinfectants and sanitizers as the fastest-growing product category within the market, expanding at an 8.4% CAGR through that period, driven by heightened hygiene standards across healthcare, food processing, and hospitality environments. North America held a 33% revenue share of the global market in 2024, reflecting the region’s broad institutional customer base and stringent regulatory requirements.

Graycliff Partners, formed in December 2011 as a spin-off from HSBC Capital and headquartered in New York, makes lower middle market investments in niche manufacturing, value-added distribution, and industrial services businesses. The firm invests between $10 million and $50 million per company, targeting EBITDA between $4 million and $20 million, and manages dedicated equity and credit funds. Its most recent private equity fund, Graycliff Private Equity Partners V LP, closed in October 2023 at its hard cap of $600 million in limited partner commitments.