CenterOak Partners Announces Sale of Vivify Specialty Ingredients
December, 2021 – CenterOak Partners LLC (“CenterOak”), a Dallas-based private equity firm, and its affiliate CenterOak Equity Fund I (“Fund I”), today announced the sale of Vivify Specialty Ingredients (“Vivify” or the “Company”), a leading supplier of specialty colorants and functional ingredients to customers in the personal care & cosmetics, food & beverage, packaging, plastics, coatings and seed treatment industries. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Based in Glendale Heights, IL, Vivify is a partner of choice to customers in over 50 countries and offers solutions such as technical product specifications and formulations, sourcing difficult-to-find additives, product quality monitoring, and just-in-time inventory. Through a technical, high-touch salesforce, the Company supports customer-specific solutions focused on product performance and customized applications by offering unique and innovative lab capabilities.
“Our investment in Vivify represented an opportunity to become first time institutional capital in a family-owned business and leverage our experience in specialty distribution,” said Randall Fojtasek, CEO and Co-Managing Partner of CenterOak. “Including Vivify, our team has led investments in multiple distribution platforms in large and growing consumer and industrial end markets. Along with the previous sales of Cascade Windows, Service Champions, FullSpeed Automotive, and TruRoad Holdings, the sale of Vivify represents the fifth successful exit out of a portfolio of eight platform investments completed in Fund I. This recent exit delivers another strong result for our investors and continues CenterOak’s momentum across both Fund I & II.”
“During our hold, we executed on a series of strategic initiatives to enhance Vivify’s commercial profile,” said Jason Sutherland, Co-Managing Partner of CenterOak. “Transformative acquisitions provided access to high growth consumer end markets, including food & beverage, personal care, and cosmetics. Deep product expertise in organic and natural offerings has further allowed Vivify to capitalize on opportunities in these high margin categories. Alongside management, we rebranded the business to reflect a fully-integrated platform and better position Vivify for success across diverse and attractive end markets. We also made significant investments in people and systems to expand the management team and implement an integrated IT platform. We wish Vivify CEO Devlin Riley and the entire Vivify team continued success.”
“As a family-owned business, we saw CenterOak as the ideal partner given their expertise with closely held businesses and their strong track record in the specialty distribution space,” said Aakash Shah, Director and shareholder of Vivify. “The operational resources and strategic insight they provided helped transform the business and position Vivify for success in several exciting end markets under a talented and experienced leadership group.”
KeyBanc served as the exclusive financial advisor to Vivify in connection with the transaction. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP served as legal counsel to CenterOak.
About Vivify
Vivify is a leading supplier of specialty colorants and functional ingredients to customers across multiple consumer and industrial end markets. Through diverse sourcing capabilities, advanced lab expertise, and a technical, high-touch salesforce, Vivify delivers customer-specific solutions focused on product performance and customized applications. For more information, visit www.vivifycompany.com
About CenterOak Partners, LLC
CenterOak Partners LLC is a private equity firm with a focus on making control-oriented investments in middle market companies organized or operating in the United States. The Firm specializes in three key industry sectors: Industrial Growth, Consumer, and Business Services. Based in Dallas, Texas, the CenterOak team has a strong history of creating significant value through operational improvements. CenterOak and its Partners have managed over $2.4 billion of equity capital commitments and have completed more than 100 transactions, representing over $7.1 billion in value. For additional information, please visit www.centeroakpartners.com.