Milan/Munich/Babenhausen — Ambi­enta SGR SpA (“Ambi­enta”) is one of the largest Euro­pean asset mana­gers fully commit­ted to envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity. The company has now acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Lässig GmbH (“LÄSSIG”) in Baben­hau­sen, Hesse, a leading supplier of func­tional, sustainable and inno­va­tive products for babies, child­ren and the whole family in the German-spea­king region and other Euro­pean count­ries. The company was owned by finan­cial inves­tors, the foun­ders Clau­dia and Stefan Lässig, and Karin Hein­rich. Ambi­enta beco­mes the new majo­rity owner, but the foun­ders and Karin Hein­rich remain signi­fi­cantly inves­ted along­side finan­cial investors.

LÄSSIG was foun­ded in 2006 by Clau­dia and Stefan Lässig and today has more than 110 employees. The company star­ted with inno­va­tive, sustaina­­bi­­lity-orien­­ted diaper bags, which are still a successful product today. The product port­fo­lio has been conti­nuously expan­ded since then and today includes back­packs, access­ories, toys, children’s table­ware, clot­hing and much more in addi­tion to bags. The products are sold in around 2,800 brick-and-mortar stores, 50 online stores and the company’s own online store at www.laessig-fashion.de.

The company is on a strong growth path and has used its strong presence in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switz­er­land) as a start­ing point for successful expan­sion into other Euro­pean markets such as France and the Bene­lux count­ries. Ambi­enta will support further inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion through its inter­na­tio­nal network and know-how. In addi­tion, Ambi­enta will work with the manage­ment team to drive the digi­tiza­tion of sales, proces­ses and operations.

Based on Ambienta’s sustainable invest­ment stra­tegy, the focus of the invest­ment in LÄSSIG is on resource effi­ci­ency and reduc­tion of envi­ron­men­tal emis­si­ons. The company is a pioneer in the imple­men­ta­tion of a holi­stic sustaina­bi­lity stra­tegy: even in the deve­lo­p­ment of its products, LÄSSIG focu­ses on the econo­mical use of resour­ces, rene­wa­ble and recy­cled mate­ri­als, and dura­bi­lity. For exam­ple, the company uses sustainable mate­ri­als such as orga­nic cotton for two-thirds of its baby clothes and supports farmers in India in conver­ting from tradi­tio­nal to orga­nic farming methods. The company coope­ra­tes with reco­gni­zed suppli­ers of recy­cled plas­tics to produce sustainable and dura­ble products — from diaper bags to satchels.

LÄSSIG bene­fits from the switch to sustainable products in a market that is still domi­na­ted by conven­tio­nal ranges today. In addi­tion, the company has deve­lo­ped clear unique selling points through its focus on inno­va­tion and func­tion­a­lity. Thanks to this stra­tegy, LÄSSIG has succee­ded in buil­ding a strong brand with a very high level of trust among parents. The company and its products have recei­ved nume­rous awards, inclu­ding the Plus X Award 2022 for sustaina­bi­lity, the German Brand Award 2021 and as a Top 100 Inno­va­tor 2022.

Hans Hade­rer (photo), part­ner and respon­si­ble for the DACH region at Ambi­enta, said: “LÄSSIG is an ideal fit for Ambi­enta due to its deep convic­tion in sustainable action and a successful growth and inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion stra­tegy. The company is not only a pioneer in inno­va­tions for family needs, but also in the econo­mical use of resour­ces, the use of recy­cled raw mate­ri­als and product dura­bi­lity. We want to consis­t­ently expand this approach toge­ther with the foun­ders and support the company’s growth stra­tegy to the best of our ability with our network and experience.”
Foun­ders Clau­dia and Stefan Lässig empha­si­zed: “In Ambi­enta, we found the opti­mal part­ner for the next growth phase of our company. It was the special focus on sustaina­bi­lity and the outstan­ding exper­tise in the stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment of foun­­der-mana­­ged, medium-sized compa­nies that ulti­m­ately tipped the scales. Both compe­ten­ces will decisi­vely help us to become the leading outfit­ter for babies, child­ren and fami­lies in Europe.”

Ambi­enta was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Ommax on commer­cial due dili­gence, Houli­han Lokey on M&A (buy-side) and debt advi­sory, Noerr on legal and struc­tu­ring due dili­gence, KPMG on finan­cial and tax due dili­gence and ERM on ESG due diligence.

Ambi­enta

Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean inves­tor in envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity in private and public markets. From Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges assets of more than 3 billion euros. The focus is on inves­t­ing in private and public compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services improve resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. In the private equity sector, Ambi­enta has made 58 invest­ments to date. In the public equity sector, Ambi­enta has laun­ched one of the world’s largest abso­lute return funds fully focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity and mana­ges a full range of sustainable products from low-risk multi-asset funds to long-only equity funds.