Munich/ Tilburg — Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”) are selling their majo­rity stake in Group of Butchers, a leading specialty meat produ­cer head­quar­te­red in Tilburg, the Nether­lands. The buyer is the Dutch invest­ment company Parcom Private Equity. Equis­tone had acqui­red Group of Butchers in early 2017 and has since supported the company’s growth stra­tegy through a series of stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons, among others. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or further details of the tran­sac­tion. The sale is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

Group of Butchers was foun­ded in Tilburg in 1997 and has become the market leader in the Nether­lands for high-quality, artis­a­nal butchery products with a focus on sausage and minced meat special­ties. Group of Butchers excels in high quality stan­dards, smart product marke­ting, conti­nuous inno­va­tion in purcha­sing and produc­tion, and in iden­ti­fy­ing new trends such as Ameri­can BBQ, gour­met burger restau­rants and street food. The wide range of high-quality meat and sausage products is sold prima­rily by leading retail chains in the Nether­lands, Belgium and Germany.

Equis­tone took a majo­rity stake in Group of Butchers in early 2017 and has since supported the specialty meat producer’s orga­nic and stra­te­gic growth through seve­ral targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons and market expan­si­ons. In 2018, Group of Butchers acqui­red Dutch smoked and dry sausage produ­cers Koet­sier Vlees­wa­ren and Keulen Vlees­wa­ren, as well as Gebroe­ders Snij­ders Vlees­wa­ren­fa­b­riek and VLL Vers Logis­tiek Limburg.

This acqui­si­tion also enab­led Group of Butchers to expand its service offe­ring in the area of slicing and pack­a­ging of meat products. It also ente­red the German market at the end of 2018 with the acqui­si­tion of Hart­mann GmbH, a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of minced meat products based in Waren­dorf in North Rhine-West­­pha­­lia, and the Gmyrek Group, a tradi­tio­nal meat and sausage manu­fac­tu­rer based in Gifhorn in Lower Saxony. July 2019 also saw the addi­tion of Schou­ten Vlees­wa­ren, a BBQ and grill­ware specia­list for the Dutch market. Today, Group of Butchers employs a total of 900 people at 12 produc­tion sites and two distri­bu­tion centers and expects sales of about 280 million euros in 2020.

“By part­ne­ring with Equis­tone, we have once again been able to signi­fi­cantly streng­then our posi­tion as one of the leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers and suppli­ers of high-quality butchery products in the Nether­lands and incre­asingly also in Germany and Belgium, and expand our geogra­phi­cal reach. We look forward to working with Parcom for the next steps in our growth,” says Remko Rosman, CEO of Group of Butchers.

“Group of Butchers’ excel­lent market posi­tio­ning is prima­rily due to high quality stan­dards and exten­sive exper­tise in iden­ti­fy­ing trends in the premium meat products segment. Toge­ther with the excel­lent manage­ment team, we have imple­men­ted a successful buy & build stra­tegy over the past years and ideally posi­tio­ned the company for further growth. We are plea­sed that Group of Butchers has found an opti­mal new part­ner for the next steps,” says Dr. Marc Arens, Mana­ging Direc­tor and Part­ner at Equistone.

“Group of Butchers conti­nues to offer great growth poten­tial, both orga­ni­cally and as we further inte­grate recent acqui­si­ti­ons and build new product and custo­mer segments through buy-&-build efforts. We look forward to support­ing the company in this endea­vor going forward,” said Maurits Werk­ho­ven, Part­ner at Parcom.

Dr. Marc Arens and Maxi­mi­lian Göppert are respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion on the part of Equis­tone. Equis­tone was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Roth­schild & Co (M&A), EY Parthe­non (CDD), EY Finan­cial (FDD), EY Tax (TDD) and A&O (Legal).

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of the most active Euro­pean equity inves­tors with a team of more than 40 invest­ment specia­lists in seven offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­da­tion, equity has been inves­ted in around 150 tran­sac­tions in the DACH region and the Nether­lands, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 40 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Nether­lands. Equis­tone is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with €2.8 billion. www.equistonepe.de

About Group of Butchers
Group of Butchers, head­quar­te­red in Tilburg, the Nether­lands, was foun­ded in 1997 as Dutch Grill Special­ties and is now a leading manu­fac­tu­rer and supplier of high-quality butchery products. The company combi­nes the capa­ci­ties of seve­ral regio­nal butcher stores, each of which produ­ces its own meat products. This results in a diverse product port­fo­lio, from smoked meats and sausa­ges to filet améri­cain and roast and gril­led meat special­ties. In 2020, Group of Butchers employs 900 people and expects sales of about 280 million euros.