KIK Consumer Products, a portfolio company of Centerbridge Partners, has agreed to sell its auto care products business to Recochem, a portfolio company of CapVest Partners since November 2023.
KIK’s auto care business develops, manufactures, and sells antifreezes, coolants, and other automotive fluids, as well as car appearance products. These products are sold under the Prestone brand in North America and the Holts brand in the United Kingdom.
KIK Consumer Products is headquartered northeast of Atlanta in Lawrenceville, Georgia. The company has multiple office locations across North America, including centers of excellence in Toronto and Atlanta, as well as manufacturing facilities across the United States and Canada.
Recochem is a manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of a range of aftermarket transportation and household fluids. The company’s product portfolio includes branded, private label, and bulk products such as coolants, appearance products, windshield wash fluids, diesel exhaust fluids, and various household fluids and industrial chemicals. Recochem, led by CEO Shawn Davies, is headquartered in Montreal and operates production facilities across North and South America, Australia, China, and India.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to create a world-class, consumer centric automotive group that can deliver the very best solutions for our customers,” said Mr. Davies. “Recochem, Prestone and Holts are highly complementary businesses, and the combined platform will offer customers a wide range of products across multiple categories that are experiencing consistent long-term growth. Today’s transaction will provide the enlarged business and individual business units with significant opportunities to expand, develop and broaden our relationships with our key partners.”
Centerbridge acquired KIK Consumer Products in August 2015 (then KIK Custom Products) from CI Capital Partners. When acquired in 2015, KIK Custom was a contract and private label manufacturer serving the personal care, automotive care, household products and pool care sectors.
In June 2020, KIK Custom sold its KIK personal care (KPC) business to Voyant Beauty, a portfolio company of Wind Point Partners. The KPC business was a formulator and contract manufacturer of personal care products for consumer product companies and asset-light brand owners. The business also supplied personal care guest amenities – including for brands such as Pantene, Listerine, VO5, Loreal and Zest – used in the North American hotel industry.
According to KIK Consumer, the sale of its auto care business comes at a logical time given the strength of that business and will allow the company to focus on the growth prospects of its household care and pool care businesses.
With the sale of the auto care business, KIK Consumer’s remaining branded and licensed products include, among many others, Spic and Span, Comet, Clorox Pool & Spa (under license), BioGuard, and Natural Chemistry. KIK Consumer is also one of North America’s largest private label producers of bleach, general purpose cleaning products, laundry detergents, and dishwashing products.
“This transaction is a testament to the strong growth and momentum of our auto care business, and we see strong prospects for the business under Recochem’s ownership,” said Michael Sload, the CEO of KIK Consumer. “After the completion of the sale, KIK Consumer will continue as a highly focused and aligned consumer products company with our household care and pool care businesses offering exceptional growth opportunities.”
Centerbridge invests from $50 million to $300 million in US-based leveraged buyouts and distressed securities. Sectors of interest include consumer, financial services, healthcare, industrials, real estate, and technology, media and telecom. The firm has $38 billion of capital under management and is headquartered in New York with an additional office in London.
CG Sawaya, a unit of Canaccord Genuity Group, was the financial advisor to KIK Consumer on this transaction. Canaccord Genuity acquired Sawaya Partners, a New York City-headquartered consumer-focused M&A advisory firm, in December 2021. CG Sawaya has been an active advisor to many firms and companies involved in this transaction. The firm was the financial advisor to Recochem on its sale to CapVest in 2023 and earlier, before being acquired by Canaccord Genuity, Sawaya was the financial advisor to the Rank Group on its sale of the Prestone and Holts brands to KIK Consumer in 2016.
Harris Williams served as the financial advisor to Recochem on the purchase of KIK Consumer’s auto care business.
© 2024 Private Equity Professional | June 27, 2024
