As a partner to the food, pet food, nutraceutical, and cosmetic industries, Diana created tailor-made solutions from natural ingredients to enhance the appeal of its clients’ products. The company organized its activities through three independent divisions:

  • Diana Pet Food is the leading worldwide producer of palatability enhancers for the pet food industry
  • Diana Food division develops organoleptic and nutritional features to enhance the benefit of its customers from the food industry
  • Diana Nova is composed of new activities with high growth potential, such as aquaculture and plant cell culture

With 32 production sites across 23 countries in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Middle-East and Australia, Diana employs more than 2,000 people worldwide and has posted continuous highly profitable growth for more than 15 years.

Throughout the investment period, Motion Equity Partners actively supported Diana in its international development in order to:

  • Increase the Group’s exposure to high-growth emerging markets
  • Strengthen its mastery of raw material sourcing, a key component of its success
  • Enter or expand in high-potential activities such as aquaculture or plant cell culture
  • Follow its top-tier clients into their new markets
  • Rebalance the Food division in relation to Pet Food

This development strategy materialized through the creation of new production sites in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Russia, South Africa, and Thailand, as well as through external growth with no fewer than six significant acquisitions, such as Confoco in Ecuador and Pacific Pure Aid in the United States.

Status

Divested

Date of investment

2004 – 2014

Website

symrise.com

BACK TO PORTFOLIO
175

Entry Sales (2004)

500

Exit Sales (2014)

4.4

MoM multiple

X

IRR

“At the beginning of its second LBO, Diana’s main challenge was to kept transforming its growth-oriented business model to maintain its entrepreneurial dynamic. Key success factors have been innovation, as the reference company regarding the development of new solutions or technologies for natural ingredients dedicated to the Food and Pet Food markets, partnerships with our markets’ leaders to meet their future needs, internationalizing of teams and further process. Motion’s team fully understood how important this evolution was and played a key role in implementing these new roadmaps as a very supportive, prompt and agile partner, especially when it came to realizing acquisitions and opening new subsidiaries in Asia and South America. Besides, Motion’s support in the implementation of an ambitious and aggressive Sustainable Development policy turned Diana into a pioneer, if not the leading company, in terms of societal responsibility, relying on strong human values of commitment.”

Olivier CaixCEO of Diana