Kartesia participates in the acquisition of International Cookware, the leading kitchenware manufacturer under the Pyrex® brand in EMEA

Kartesia is pleased to announce that it has participated in the aquisition of International Cookware Group and its subsidiaries (“The Group”) alongside its management team, from Aurora Resurgence. Kartesia is providing the entire unitranche financing as well as the majority of the equity and will therefore become the new reference shareholder of The Group.

The Group designs, manufactures and distributes cookware equipment, primarily made of borosilicate glass, which offers superior thermal shock resistance. It is primarily sold under the iconic Pyrex® brand, which International Cookware commercialises across EMEA under an exclusive licencing agreement granted by Corning Inc and Corning Limited. The Group has also developed its own cookware brand, Ôcuisine, which has a large range of products distributed throughout the world.

The Group benefits from an internationally renowned brand and significant marketshare. The Group is recognised for quality assurance, having differentiated itself thanks to the high quality of its production and heritage of operating the largest manufacturing plant for borosilicate glass in the world, located in Châteauroux, France, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2020.

The Group is benefitting from favourable medium term market trends, as increasing demand for locally produced, high quality glass reflects health,environmental and economic concerns related to plastic use. This change in consumer behaviour should support further growth of The Group in the coming years, thanks to its deeply rooted commercial and marketing innovation culture, adding new products to to its range such as glass conservation containers (Cook & Store, Cook & Go).

Damien Scaillierez, Managing Partner at Kartesia, said, “The International Cookware Group is one of the most iconic French manufacturing companies. Having developed real technical expertise in developing high quality products and a history of new product development has allowed The Group to continuously increase its market share. We are delighted to accompany The Group in this new development phase, alongside a highly competent and experienced management team which would become a key shareholder of The Group through the transaction. More specifically, working together to in this  transaction will enable  The Group to face the highly unusual current health and economic environment with greater security.”

Jose-Luis Llacuna, President of International Cookware comments: “We are pleased to have the Kartesia team accompany us in this new transaction in order to accelerate further our growth, notably in the fields of product innovation, industrial efficiency and commercial development to even better fit ever-changing customers’ expectations in our markets.”