Private equity firm Riverside Co. recently acquired DuBois Chemicals, a specialty chemicals company whose products include industrial lubricants and metalworking fluids. The price was not disclosed.
Since 2002, DuBois was part of Johnson Diversey Inc., a company in Racine, Wisc. A couple of years ago they determined what DuBois does wasnt a strategic fit for their long-term goals, Riverside partner Tim Gosline told Lube Report. Earlier this year they decided to sell that operation, so they put it up for an auction process, and we won. The acquisition closed on Sept. 26, according to Gosline.
What were hoping for is that Riverside wants to make the sort of strategic investments in us that will help us grow our business, DuBois spokesman Kevin Davis told Lube Report. We certainly want to grow, and become a leader again, so thats what were looking forward to.
Markets that DuBois, based in Sharonville, Ohio, sells to include process cleaning and pretreatment, paper chemicals, water treatment and vehicle cleaning/industrial maintenance products. The companys offerings include synthetic greases and oils, an oil soluble cleaner, and cutting and grinding fluids. DuBois also offers some of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Milacrons metalworking fluids products. Metalworking fluids will continue to be a player for DuBois, Davis added.
Riverside, which has headquarters in Cleveland and New York, was impressed with the manufacturers ability to customize products, Gosline said, including formulations for lubricants and metalworking fluids. DuBois has more than 5,500 customers.
One of DuBoiss strengths is coming up with new products to fit specific customer requirements – thats what they do, day in and day out, Riversides Gosline continued. They have a very focused approach to solving customers’ problems. If we can do that successfully, we should be able to continue to grow, even if the overall market is kind of flat right now.
Gosline described DuBois as primarily a manufacturer. Weve got a sales force of over 200 people that sell the products, either directly to the end user, or in a limited amount of cases, to other distributors, he said. DuBois overall has about 350 employees.
This change of ownership will not impact active employees or service to our customers, DuBois Chemicals President Jeff Welsh stated.