A global leader in chemicals and ingredients distribution, Brenntag's operation in a highly fragmented market makes the company relient on M&A as a key growth lever. Before Grata, Brenntag’s team struggled with rigid industry-code searches that made broad target screening difficult and often surfaced irrelevant companies, costing valuable time and resources.
Brenntag is the global market leader in chemicals and ingredients distribution. With more than 150 years of history, the company holds a central role in connecting customers and suppliers across various industries.
Headquartered in Essen, Germany, Brenntag has more than 17,000 employees worldwide and operates a network of around 600 sites in more than 70 countries. The company provides a diversified and broad portfolio of industrial and specialty chemicals and ingredients across the full essential and specialties range. Brenntag operates in a highly fragmented market with distribution dispersed across regions. This dynamic makes inorganic growth a core pillar of the company's strategy.
Conrad Bücheleres, Global Strategy and M&A Director, works on target screening at Brenntag, identifying acquisition candidates across markets. He is responsible for surfacing opportunities that align with Brenntag's strategic priorities, a task that demands both broad market visibility and the ability to zero in on niche segments quickly.
Before adopting Grata, Conrad and team relied on a tool that offered strong financial data but required users to search by rigid industry classification codes. Without a specific company already identified, Conrad found that "screening was almost not possible.”
Using Grata was a completely different experience. “Grata's natural language screening and conferences feature was just much more natural and much easier to use,” Conrad said.
When the Brenntag team evaluated alternatives, the results were underwhelming. "When we ran comparisons more than a year ago, Grata had the best results with natural language prompts. We tested some other tools that returned results for automotive parts OEMs, which had nothing to do with us. Invalid search results cost time and resources we do not have to spare." In Brenntag’s evaluation, these other platforms lacked the industry-specific intuition needed for chemical distribution, even in their latest versions.
Conrad has seen first-hand the difference between screening today versus just a few years ago. "I used to work in consulting and some years ago we had an M&A screening project for a duration of six weeks at a low 6-figure budget. But today, with what Grata does, those projects are obsolete. If you know about Grata, you won't outsource M&A screening anymore."
With Grata's AI Similar Search, dealmakers can start from a single company profile, instantly surface thousands of lookalikes worldwide, and rapidly narrow the field. "I’ll start with a global list of something like 15,000 companies,” Conrad explained. “Then, with 2-3 filters — whether it be region, size, or operating model — the 15,000 goes to 9,000, goes to 2,000, goes to 500. And that's all within a few minutes."
While Grata addressed Brenntag's screening needs, Conrad identified a remaining gap: thorough industry reports. "We wanted a tool that provides deeper market and product intelligence. No single platform could provide everything we needed at the right quality, but Grata and Blueflame AI together covered that." When the team tested Blueflame on a niche product, it produced a 33-page report in half a day, comparable in quality to standalone market intelligence providers but now paired with Grata's screening capabilities within one ecosystem. As the two platforms continue to integrate further under the Datasite umbrella, Brenntag gains a unified workflow from target discovery through market diligence.
For a global M&A team working across all major time zones this tech stack unlocks faster access to the right companies, markets, and intelligence without sacrificing the breadth required to uncover opportunities around the world.
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