Diversey was acquired by Solenis, a manufacturer of specialty chemicals used in water-intensive industries. Solenis is part of Platinum Equity.

With the acquisition, completed on July 5, Solenis grew to an enterprise operating in over 130 countries with 71 manufacturing facilities and more than 15,000 employees. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, Solenis was acquired by Platinum Equity in 2021. Bain Capital, the majority shareholder of Diversey, will hold a minority stake in Solenis as a result of this transaction.

“This merger makes Solenis a more diversified company with significantly increased scale, broader global reach and the ability to offer a ‘one-stop shop’ suite of solutions that meet customer demand and address water management, cleaning and hygiene issues on a global basis,” said John Panichella, CEO, Solenis. “Together, we have a foundation from which we can continue to leverage our strong customer partnerships, leading-edge innovation and value-added services to propel Solenis’ aggressive growth trajectory. With continued support from Platinum Equity, we are confident that we will maximize the promising opportunities ahead.”

Panichella stated that the addition of the Diversey line of cleaning and hygiene products and technologies helps create cross-selling opportunities that will make Solenis an even more valuable partner for its customers. “We now have greatly enhanced capabilities to help our customers tackle critical sustainability challenges, reduce their environmental impact and help create a cleaner, safer world,” he said.

Sales: $2.7 billion

Earlier this year, Diversey agreed to be acquired by Solenis for $4.6 billion. When the deal is done, Diversey will become a private company. Headquartered in Wilmington, DE, Solenis manufactures specialty chemicals used in water-intensive industries. It was acquired by Platinum Equity in 2021.

“The merger presents a unique opportunity to enhance value and create a more diversified business with increased scale, broader global reach, and superior customer service capabilities. It will enable the combined company to grow and provide a number of attractive cross-selling opportunities, including meeting increasing customer demand for water management, cleaning and hygiene solutions,” said Diversey CEO Phil Wieland.

Corporate sales rose 4% last year. Diversey’s business can be divided into two segments—institutional and food & beverage. Diversey’s institutional sales rose less than 2% to more than $1.9 billion. Organic sales increased 9.1%, primarily due to price increases and volume growth—excluding infection prevention products—through a combination of new customer wins, innovation, and continued expansion with existing Diversey customers. However, the company noted these increases were partially offset by a decrease in sales of infection prevention products, which have returned to a more normalized level, after demand increased significantly in 2020 and in the first quarter of 2021.

Food & beverage sales jumped 16% to $814 million. Organic sales increased by 21.8% primarily due to price increases, volume growth through new customer wins, and success with the rollout of water treatment solutions.
Earlier this year, in February, Diversey acquired NSS Enterprise, Inc., a US maker of floor cleaning machines.

Sales: $2.6 billion

Sales fell less than 1% last year. Institutional sales fell nearly 4% to just over $1.9 billion. Diversey blamed the decline on lower demand for disinfectants. This decrease was slightly offset by a recovery in certain geographic markets, which led to an increase in sales in areas that were primarily impacted by covid-related shutdowns, particularly in restaurants, hotels and entertainment facilities.

Food and beverage sales rose more than 10% to $700 million. Organic sales increased 7.0%, as F&B was less affected by the pandemic as many of customers were considered essential businesses and did not experience shutdowns to the extent experienced in the institutional segment. The increase in sales is primarily driven by new customer wins, pricing actions, and the continued rollout of water treatment solutions.

By region, European sales rose 2.2% to more than $1.1 billion, but sales in North America slid nearly 10% to $708 million. Sales in Asia Pacific were up 3.6% to $338 million. Also making gains were MEA, up 6% to $231 million, and Latin America, up 8.7% to $183 million.

In January, 2022, Diversey acquired Shorrock Trichem, a distributor of cleaning and hygiene solutions and services based in Northwest England. Shorrock has sales of more than $30 million. Shorrock is Diversey’s fifth acquisition in the past 16 months. Having previously announced the acquisitions of Sanechem, Avmor, Tasman Chemicals and Birko & Chad Equipment, Diversey continues to grow scale, infrastructure and product capability in key markets to drive customer proposition improvements and optimize financial returns.

In March 2022, Diversey began distributing Reckitt products in the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Turkey. The agreement includes  Dettol, Lysol, Harpic, Vanish, Airwick and Pine O Cleen. This collaboration in emerging markets significantly expands the geographic footprint established by the relationship Reckitt and Diversey already have in North America.
For Q1 2022, sales rose 4.5% to $660 million. Food and beverage sales jumped 14.8% to top pre-pandemic levels. Institutional sales rose less than 1% to $472 million.

On April 15, Diversey, like many other companies, added an energy surcharge to partially offset inflation and the significant rise in energy, gas and oil prices, ranges from 8-15% and will remain in place until the increased energy prices return to normalized levels, according to the company. A significant proportion of the raw materials and manufacturing for Diversey’s portfolio are by-products of energy intensive processes. The impact of high energy costs and reduced output in these industries has resulted in significantly inflated costs for many businesses including Diversey.

In light of this, Diversey says it has taken several measures to mitigate the adverse effects, including reducing the use of energy in daily operations, optimizing supply chain, holding higher inventory, and refining the portfolio. Similarly, the company said it has also taken steps to help its customers manage their energy costs for example through low temperature washing, management information systems, concentrated products and dispensing systems, which offer insights into the usage of energy, in order to identify real savings.

Last fall, Diversey opened its Innovation Zone Research and Development Center at its corporate headquarters in Fort Mill, SC. The Innovation Zone brings Diversey’s North American R&D groups into a single facility. It houses numerous state-of-the-art labs where scientists and specialists develop the industry’s next generation of cleaning and hygiene solutions, according to the company.

“We’re incredibly excited to open the doors of the Innovation Zone because it will help us fast track the development of new solutions that care for and protect people around the world,” said Paul Budsworth, president – Diversey North America. “This investment is an important step for advancing commercial cleaning capabilities and helping us to better support our global customer base.”

The Innovation Zone includes Diversey’s analytical lab, formulation lab, microbiology lab and dosing, dispensing and application lab.

“Housing all of our North American R&D experts in one state-of-the-art location allows for greater collaboration, knowledge-sharing and easier and more efficient product improvement,” said Rick Dayton, chief architect—infection prevention, Diversey. “We look forward to hosting customers and prospects, providing training on key systems and offering a behind-the-scenes look at our innovation process.”

Also last fall, during the HCPA New Horizons Conference, Ken Roach, technology fellow, Diversey, detailed the benefits of incorporating probiotics into industrial & institutional cleaning formulas. The result, he said, is superior results with significant savings of water and time. Compared to standard floor cleaner, bio-augmented floor cleaner requires 75% less time and 65% less water. Perhaps most importantly, a better clean can save lives. According to Roach, 50 million Americans get sick every year and thousands die every year, due to poor cleaning procedures. In fact, Roach said most illness can be attributed to human error.

Roach cautioned that bio-augmented cleaners cannot be used near food. Furthermore, these formulas still require traditional ingredients such as surfactants, builders and preservatives, along with bacterial spores. According to Roach, formulations may contain enzymes, but they’re not necessary as the spores will germinate and produce enzymes specific to the soil present. He pointed out that conventional cleaning components are necessary to deliver a result in a relatively short time.

“Bio-augmented formulas are not a panacea,” he noted. “But they do clean up what traditional cleaners miss.”

Roach called bacteria nature’s ultimate recyclers and noted that biodegradation is ultimately a bacterial process.

“If we can make the formulation mild enough for spores to survive, then we can get the benefits of bio-augmentation.”

Sales: $2.6 billion

Diversey is a public company again. The industrial and institutional product manufacturer was founded in 1923. Over the years, the company has had a range of owners, including the Molson Company and Unilever. Bain Capital acquired Diversey in 2017 from Sealed Air Corp for about $3.2 billion and ultimately merged it with UK-based Zenith Hygiene Group. In March, Diversey began trading on NASDAQ under the symbol “DSEY.”

For the first quarter of 2021, sales fell less than 4% to $631 million. The company noted that the COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact sales, especially within the institutional segment. In Q1, institutional sales fell 8.7% due to the marked volume decline at restaurants, hotels, and entertainment facilities driven by shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, long-term, the company expects increased demand for infection prevention products and services. Diversey executives noted that the pandemic has resulted in higher disinfection standards and a fundamental shift in demand for its products, thereby permanently altering the landscape for health and hygiene solutions.

By segment, institutional sales fell 5.2% to $468 million. The decline was driven primarily by the impact of COVID-19 related shutdowns in all regions except North America, particularly in restaurants, hotels, and entertainment facilities. North America revenue grew 40.7% in 2021, reflecting new customer wins and demand for infection prevention products.

Food & Beverage sales increased 2.1% due to the acquisition of SaneChem. Diversey noted that F&B was less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as many customers were considered essential businesses and did not experience shutdowns to the extent experienced in the institutional segment. On a regional basis, growth was led by Middle East and Africa, and Latin America, primarily driven by pricing actions to offset inflation. Sales volumes were also higher in these regions as well as in North America on a combination of demand for sanitizers and disinfectant products and new customers.

Sales: $2.7 billion

As the No. 2 player in the global industrial and institutional cleaning market, Diversey is at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic and is taking disparate measures to improve human health and safety. The company noted that gone are the days of “good enough” and simply cleaning for appearance. Employees and customers demand more.

The company has released “Ready to Reopen” plans that provide cleaning measures for any business and staff to follow to ensure personal safety. Diversey also published steps that organizations can take to make customers and employees feel safer, including providing alcohol-based hand sanitizers, using hospital-grade disinfectants, making cleaning more visible, communicating cleaning and giving guests control over disinfecting by making wipes readily available throughout hotels and other hospitality venues.

For the beleaguered processing industry, Diversey created an enhanced guide that presents best practice advice to help protect employees and facilities. Measures include intensifying personal hygiene practices, employees screening, implementing intervention practices to control the spread of the virus through the air, updating current SOPs and continued control of water quality.

According to Diversey, at a time when people are fearful of entering facilities and interacting with others in close quarters, businesses must adopt new methods of cleaning. The visible process of cleaning instills confidence while removing invisible pathogens.

In other moves, in May, Eurostars Hotels partnered with Diversey to create the Clean and Safe program for added adult safety. And more than a year ago, Diversey acquired Virox and its Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide (AHP) technology, which disinfects cruise ships, nursing homes and hospitals. As COVID-19 spread, Virox ramped up production and began turning out AHP at five times its normal rate.

Sales: $2.6 billion.

In November, Diversey announced the appointment of Mark S. Burgess, who was previously chief executive officer of Signode Industrial Group, as its new CEO. Burgess succeeded Dr. Ilham Kadri, who left Diversey at the end of 2018 to become CEO at Solvay.

“I’m honored to join Diversey, a company with a rich heritage, a legacy of innovation, and an enduring focus on customer service,” said Burgess. “Diversey is well-positioned for the future as we continue to invest in innovation to drive growth while delivering increased value for our customers.”

In April, a new and improved range of iodine-based teat disinfectants, which comprises products specifically developed for the varying needs of dairy farmers and are designed to achieve the optimum activity against bacteria, was fully approved by the Biocidal Product Regulation (BPR) across all EU member states. The formulations were created to offer multiple advantages to animals while delivering maximum efficacy from minimum dosage.

Diversey opened a new R&D center in China in April 2019, which represents a significant investment for the company in the country and a key milestone in the execution of the company’s Asia strategy. Located in Shanghai, Diversey’s R&D lab will be well connected with the company’s global R&D resources, while simultaneously leveraging local market insights.

Diversey, in partnership with Advanced Extraction Systems Inc. (AESI), launched a new cleaning process and CIP system at the Lift & Co. Cannabis Expo last month in Toronto. The system has been developed for application with the CO2 extraction process in the rapidly emerging global hemp industry. By reducing ethanol in the cleaning process, the new CIP system is said to effectively reduce the capital cost of expansion and is a significant industry driver.

“From the CIP trials we’ve carried out in development with Diversey, there is no doubt that removing the volatility of ethanol, combined with the greater cleaning success the process achieves, makes this new system a real game changer,” said David Campbell, co-founder and COO of AESI.

Sales: $2.6 billion.

Diversey has a new owner in Bain Capital, but the results are similar. The company remains the No. 2 player in the US I&I market, trailing Ecolab (No. 7 in The Top 50). In a recent company interview, CEO Ilham Kadri said her priorities are to keep creating value for Diversey’s customers through innovative solutions that help them solve their most pressing needs.

“As a woman in the hygiene industry, my ambition is to help other younger women develop careers and have opportunities to prosper; 70% of the workers in our industry are female and half of them are illiterate, so my commitment is to do all I can to give them opportunities to prosper,” she explained.

Kadri proudly noted that she founded and is the first chairwoman of the ISSA Hygieia Network and launched a mentoring program to help overcome low-level roles and facilitate professional development for the Network.

“I’m also devoted to improving the number of women in board rooms” she added. “Diversey’s Women’s Initiative Network (WIN) aims to ensure that we attract, retain and advance the professional development of women. I’m very much looking forward to continuing these efforts within Diversey and beyond.”

Diversey is expanding its offerings in traditional I&I segments, but also investing in its future. For example, Swingobot 2000 is the newest cleaning robot from Taski; it can clean a variety of surfaces with a variety of materials. It’s just one of the solutions coming out of Diversey’s robotics division. Swingobot 2000 hands-free robotic floor care machine with built-in sensors and advanced on-board technologies ensures at least 20% more productivity over the previous Swingobot 1650 machine model, enabling facilities to effectively clean floors in less time, according to the company.

These and other data-driven robots are part of what Diversey calls the Internet of Clean; but don’t worry, not every human job will give way to AI.

In a 2017 white paper by the International Federation of Robots, the authors argue that robots complement and augment human labor.

“The future will be robots and humans working together. Robots substitute [labor] activities, but do not replace jobs,” according to IFR. “Automation provides the opportunity for humans to focus on higher-skilled, higher-quality, and higher-paid tasks.”

Other experts agree—sort of. According to a Forrester Research study, robots and artificial intelligence could eliminate nearly 25 million jobs in the US during the next decade, but it should create nearly 15 million jobs.

And not every number-crunching job will go to computers, either. Last month, Carlos Sagasta joined the company as its new chief financial officer. Prior to joining Diversey, Sagasta was with Office Depot, where he led financial operations, managed the company’s finance, accounting, treasury and procurement functions and had operational oversight of CompuCom’s international operations in Mexico and India.

Sales: $2.5 billion (estimated) for I&I products.
Corporate sales: $8.1 billion.

Sealed Air Corp., Elmwood Park, NJ, entered the industrial and institutional cleaning category with its $4.3 billion acquisition of Diversey, which closed in October 2011.

Sealed Air cleared the air immediately, by putting its own people in the top spots and reorganizing the corporation into three groups:

• Food & Beverage—Combines legacy food packaging and food solutions businesses with Diversey’s food and beverage applications;
• Institutional & Laundry—Represents the legacy Diversey business serving institutional and industrial end-users such as food service providers, lodging establishments, building service contractors, building managers and property owners, retail outlets, schools and health care facilities.
• Protective Packaging—Combines legacy protective packaging, shrink packaging and specialty materials businesses.

There is also an “other” category, which includes Sealed Air’s legacy medical applications business and new ventures.

For the fourth quarter of 2011, the first quarter that Sealed Air competed in the I&I space, Diversey’s sales were nearly $796 million. For the first quarter of 2012, sales fell 2% to $751 million.

“Diversey segment sales were less than planned in the quarter due to ongoing weakness in Europe and the timing of specific customer orders in North America. We expect to see a more normalized order pattern in North America in that segment through the balance of the year,” said William V. Hickey, president and chief executive officer. “While we remain cautious about any European economic improvement, we are encouraged by high single-digit percent sales growth in developing regions and strong customer reception of our solutions resulting from our growth programs. We have built a strong foundation for growth across all of our businesses when Europe does recover.”

Sales: $3.1 billion. Net income: $64 million.

The deal is sealed. On June 1, Sealed Air Corporation agreed to acquire Diversey Holdings Inc. in a cash and stock transaction valued at $4.3 billion. The transaction is expected to be completed this year.

The purchase is a net gain to Diversey shareholders of $2.9 billion after accounting for $1.4 billion in debt. Much of that debt was due to Johnson Wax Professional’s 2002 acquisition of Diversey Lever to become JohnsonDiversey.

Sealed Air, the Bubble Wrap maker, calls itself a leading provider of food and industrial system solutions that help ensure that food retains its freshness, products arrive undamaged, and transit efficiencies are maximized to reduce energy and waste. Sealed Air is focused on pioneering a differentiated, proprietary range of offerings in material science, automation technology and service-based solutions in order to provide comprehensive solutions to its customers. Sealed Air operates in 52 countries, employs more than 16,000 people and generated net sales of $4.5 billion in 2010.

“This transaction represents a strategic growth opportunity that leverages Sealed Air’s core competencies and positions our company to further capitalize on the megatrends that drive both businesses,” said William V. Hickey, president and chief executive officer, Sealed Air. “With Diversey, we will expand our footprint beyond specialty packaging solutions by gaining entry into a $40+ billion chemical cleaning and hygiene industry that has attractive fundamentals and is already in our value chain. This combination is also financially compelling, and we expect it to deliver enhanced earnings per share and free cash flow generation, creating meaningful value for our shareholders.”

After the transaction closes, Edward F. Lonergan, president and chief executive officer of Diversey, and his team will join Sealed Air and Lonergan will continue to lead the Diversey business.

According to the companies, the move creates a global leader in sustainable solutions that provide hygiene, protection, food safety and security; extends the geographic footprint and enhances growth opportunities in developing regions, expands revenue opportunity with overlapping customer base, broadens solutions offering and combines complementary business models.

Obviously, the sale will end the Johnson family’s control of Diversey. Until the acquisition by Sealed Air, the Johnson family owned 51% of Diversey. After the closing, Diversey shareholders will own about 15% of Sealed Air common stock.

In an interview with The Journal Times of Racine, Helen Johnson-Leipold, Diversey’s chairman,called the sale, “difficult because we have pride in ownership in building a company into what it is.”

The only other company sale experience the Johnson family has is the 2006 sale of Diversey subsidiary Johnson Polymer to BASF. In smaller deals, SC Johnson sold Edge, Johnson Outdoors sold its rod-and-reel business and Johnson Financial Group sold its Swiss subsidiary.

At press time, Sealed Air plans to maintain Diversey’s business unit for the Americas, and research and development functions. Diversey employs more than 600 at the site.

For its part, Sealed Air spokesman Ken Aurichio said no workforce-related decisions have been made. “In this case, while the businesses are complementary, they’re still fairly stand-alone.” Aurichio added, “I wouldn’t see any sort of dramatic reductions” in workforce.

Johnson-Leipold also told The Journal Times that no decisions have been made. “But I think it’s obvious we provide a different skill set than Sealed Air.”

Sales: $3.1 billion. Net loss: $48.6 million

Now, you can call them Diversey, but you don’t have to call them Johnson! In March, JohnsonDiversey, Inc. changed its name to Diversey Holdings, Inc. The corporation’s operating companies are also changing their legal names to reference Diversey. Concurrent with the name change, Diversey, Inc. is adopting a new corporate identity, branding and tagline, “for a cleaner, healthier future.”

“Today represents an important milestone in the history of our company,” said S. Curtis Johnson, Diversey’s chairman. “Our new identity and tagline captures our people’s passion for helping to make our world cleaner, healthier and safer for future generations.”

Added Diversey president and chief executive officer Ed Lonergan, “Simplifying our name to Diversey and adopting a meaningful, unified global brand image derives from our commitment to provide our customers and their employees with superior and sustainable cleaning, sanitizing and hygiene solutions. Our new brand strengthens our ability to communicate the benefits of our high quality products and services.”

Sales fell 7% last year. More than 83% of sales were generated outside the U.S. In the Europe, Middle East and Africa segment, net sales increased 0.1%. This increase was primarily due to price increases and customer acquisitions across the region. Sales volume also increased in certain emerging markets, such as in Central and Eastern Europe, but was offset by volume declines in Western Europe, particularly in floor care equipment and cleaning tools and engineering sales, a result of customers deferring their capital investments, the company said.

Latin American net sales increased 6.1%. Growth came from most countries in the region, primarily through the implementation of price increases, offset by volume decreases in the lodging and retail sectors.

Asia Pacific net sales increased 1.6% due to continuing volume improvements in developing markets such as India, and stable growth in Australia, offset by volume decreases in the remainder of the region primarily caused by lower traffic in the lodging sector.

North American sales fell 1.2% due to reduced demand in the institutional distribution network and Diversey’s decision to exit certain underperforming food and beverage sector accounts.

Finally, in Japan, sales fell 10.6%. The company blamed half of the decline on the recession, and the rest to its decision to discontinue low margin businesses and underperforming accounts in both direct and indirect channels.

In financial news, in November, Clayton Dubilier & Rice, LLC purchased a 46% interest in the company for $477 million, as part of a broader recapitalization transaction valued at $2.6 billion.

For the first quarter of 2010, sales fell 1.1% to $747 million due to foreign currency fluctuations. The company recorded growth in Greater Asia Pacific, effectively flat sales in Europe, with “some challenges in the Americas.”