Ardian: Groupe RG acquires Cotral Lab and Comu Systems

Paris/ Frank­furt a. M. — With the active support of Ardian Expan­sion and Latour Capi­tal, Groupe RG — a leader in the distri­bu­tion of perso­nal protec­tive equip­ment (PPE) for over 35 years — announ­ces the acqui­si­tion of Cotral Lab, the worl­d’s leading manu­fac­tu­rer of custom hearing protec­tion and reco­gni­zed provi­der of prescrip­tion safety eyewear, and Comu Systems, a specia­list in tacti­cal and criti­cal communications.

This acqui­si­tion is part of a clear stra­tegy to conti­nuously increase added value for custo­mers, improve the Group’s exper­tise and conso­li­date its role as an inde­pen­dent, specia­li­zed multi-brand distri­bu­tor. “This acqui­si­tion perfectly comple­ments Groupe RG’s range of custo­mi­zed PPE. We remain first and fore­most a distri­bu­tor serving all our manu­fac­tu­rer part­ners and provi­ding objec­tive advice to our custo­mers. We want to ensure the quality of our recom­men­da­ti­ons and the diver­sity of our offer. Cotral Lab streng­thens our tech­ni­cal product port­fo­lio and our service in a highly specia­li­zed segment,” says Pierre Manchini, Presi­dent of Groupe RG. 

Cotral Lab will remain an inde­pen­dent company. The sales team will main­tain its inde­pen­dence and current struc­ture, and products will conti­nue to be distri­bu­ted prima­rily through direct chan­nels to end-user companies. 

Groupe RG’s philo­so­phy remains unch­an­ged: to act as a broker of exper­tise, able to bring toge­ther manu­fac­tu­r­ers, profes­sio­nals and end users to pursue common goals — better protection,
more inno­va­tion and sustainable construction.

About Groupe RG

With a turno­ver of almost 600 million euros, around 1,500 employees and 70 bran­ches and subsi­dia­ries in France and Europe, Groupe RG is the leading specia­li­zed PPE distri­bu­tor in France and a major player in Europe. Its strong orga­nic growth, combi­ned with a dyna­mic acqui­si­tion stra­tegy, under­pins its ambi­tion to become the leading specia­list in PPE distri­bu­tion and rela­ted services in Europe. Since 2019, the Group has comple­ted 14 acqui­si­ti­ons in France, Bene­lux, Spain, Italy, Tuni­sia, Slova­kia and Ireland. www.groupe-rg.com

About Cotral Lab

With more than 30 years of expe­ri­ence, Cotral Lab has estab­lished itself as a global leader in the design, manu­fac­ture and distri­bu­tion of custo­mi­zed hearing protec­tion for profes­sio­nals. The inte­gra­tion of Comu Systems has enab­led Cotral Lab to diffe­ren­tiate itself in the tacti­cal market by offe­ring commu­ni­ca­tion systems for criti­cal envi­ron­ments. In addi­tion, the company has expan­ded its exper­tise by laun­ching a third busi­ness line focu­sed on visual protec­tion, offe­ring CONFIDENTIAL prescrip­tion safety eyewear speci­fi­cally desi­gned for expo­sed workers. With these three core acti­vi­ties, Cotral Lab has equip­ped nearly 2.5 million users in more than 30,000 compa­nies on 4 conti­nents. The company, which is growing by more than 15% per year, curr­ently employs around 350 people and has a turno­ver of 60 million euros, 25% of which is gene­ra­ted by exports. — www.cotral.fr