‘Part of our story’

Envu officially became a standalone entity on Oct. 5, 2022. It took the company less than two years to announce a major acquisition generating significant curiosity within the golf industry. 

On the evening of July 11, FMC revealed an agreement to sell its Global Specialty Solutions business to Envu for $350 million. The business unit includes non-crop markets served by FMC.

In an interview with Golf Course Industry, Envu CEO Gilles Galliou indicated how the acquisition helps fulfill the company’s growth strategy. Envu formed when Bayer divested and sold its Environmental Science Professional business to the London-based private equity firm Cinven for $2.6 billion. FMC started exploring options beginning in November 2023 to make a similar divestment of its Global Specialty Solutions business, which serves the golf, lawn and tree care, sports fields, ornamental, and pest control markets.

“We always said external growth would be something that we are looking for,” Galliou says. “This was purely logical. This is part of our story; this is part of the markets we serve. We know these businesses, we know the markets, we know the customers, and we just felt it was fulfilling our promises.”

The companies are targeting the fourth quarter of 2024 to close the deal, according to Galliou. Until then, Envu and FMC Global Specialty Solutions will continue operating as competing companies.

The deal means two of the golf industry’s largest and most diverse plant protectant portfolios will become integrated under the Envu brand. Current FMC products will become part of the Envu-branded portfolio following regular post-transaction regulatory processes.

“It takes a lot of time to register those labels, so we’ll be starting as soon as the deal closes,” Galliou says. “The objective for us is to have Durentis, Talstar and all those products under the Envu umbrella brand. We will retain the product names. The way they are known to your readers will remain, but there will be a change in the look and feel.”

FMC has introduced multiple new solutions to the golf industry in recent years, including Serata, Kalida, Fame and Rayora fungicides, and Durentis insecticide. Talstar and Triple Crown insecticides, and Quicksilver T&O, Xonerate 2SC and the Dismiss family herbicides are other FMC staples used on golf courses. The FMC solutions will complement Envu’s existing portfolio of more than 40 products used on golf courses.

“It will strengthen us in making it easier for customers and partners to work with the bigger company Envu will become when we close.” Galliou says. “It will also create a lot of opportunity for innovation. We have some proprietary formulation technology that wouldn’t be shared with competitors and now that FMC is not going to be a competitor in the future, we will be able to use that proprietary technology with them and they will do the same for us. Having a strong partner is a good thing and it creates an opportunity, which is tremendous.”

Innovation represents an Envu corporate theme, and Galliou used the term eight times during a 20-minute conversation discussing the events and benefits of the acquisition. While they will no longer be part of the agriculture business of larger companies, Envu and FMC Global Specialty Solutions still will have agreements with their former companies providing access to active ingredients for use in specialty markets.

“Combining technology, combining brain strength and powers, and combining new AIs that are coming from FMC in the future and from Bayer in the future … that prospect is exciting,” Galliou says. “We want to be able to find solutions that have never been found before.”

In addition to products, Envu and FMC Global Specialty Solutions will be integrating people, some of whom possess decades of industry experience, into one business. Decisions on how the integrated team will look won’t be made until the sale closes. Based in Cary, North Carolina, Envu has more than 270 employees in the U.S. FMC Global Specialty Solutions is based in Philadelphia.

“I will make sure we build the best possible team for the industry and that we do that respectfully and with the care and attention that our people and the markets we support deserve,” Galliou says. 

Guy Cipriano is Golf Course Industry’s publisher + editor-in-chief.