Barentz International announced that it has acquired Distribuciones Indus-triales Variadas, S.A. (Divsa), Central America’s leading value-adding distributor of life science ingredients and specialty chemicals.

With locations across Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, El Sal-vador, Costa Rica, and Panama, Divsa represents the ideal fit to bridge Barentz’ well-established presence in North and South America. The team will continue to be led by Mario Mena, Divsa’s president and founder, and the headquarters will remain in Guatemala City. 

Divsa offers dedicated commercial and technical teams serving targeted end-markets including personal care, flavors and fragrances, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, coatings, and polyurethanes, as well as  value-add operational services, including in-house blending, repackaging and transportation assets, combine to offer customers unmatched service-levels.

Coverage across Central America bridges Barentz’ leading positions in North and South America. Divsa’s multiple in-house laboratories and technical ser-vice teams are highly complementary to Barentz’ global network of more than 30 laboratories across four continents, while its portfolio of blue-chip product lines provide the opportunity for further expansion of strategic sup-plier relationships.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mario and his team to the Barentz organization and immediately establish a market leading presence in the Central Ameri-can region,” said Hidde van der Wal, CEO of Barentz. “DIVSA has an impressive track record of delivering results for its key stakeholders and we are excited to leverage our combined capabilities to create better solutions that en-able sustained success for our customers, principals and employees across LATAM.” 

“From the beginning, our goal was to establish Divsa as a scalable, differentiated distributor that would be a sustainable home for our employees, cus-tomers, and suppliers,” Mario Mena, president of Divsa, added. “Given Barentz’ global footprint, entrepreneurial culture, and proven track-record of successful partnerships with independent businesses, I saw a combination with Barentz as the best way to ensure and continue Divsa’s mission long into the future.”