Aachen/Kempen — The S‑UBG Group from Aachen acqui­res mino­rity shares in Ther­mo­glas Nieder­rhein GmbH and Glas Trie­nes GmbH & Co KG with its Mittel­stands­fonds. In this way, S‑UBG enables the succes­sion of the company by the exter­nal mana­ger Mathias Schlatt, who acqui­res the remai­ning shares. Schlatt takes over the manage­ment of both compa­nies from Knut-Ulrich Rött­ger, who acqui­red the compa­nies in 1999 and has been mana­ging part­ner ever since.

The now 45-year-old mana­ger star­ted his career in his parents’ company Schlatt Glas­han­dels­ge­sell­schaft mbH in Bocholt: “Mathias Schlatt has been working in the glass indus­try for over 20 years and brings with him expe­ri­ence, good cont­acts and exten­sive exper­tise,” says Bern­hard Kugel, CEO of the S‑UBG Group. Knut-Ulrich Rött­ger is also plea­sed to be able to hand over his life’s work into good hands with the support of S‑UBG: “The fair nego­tia­ti­ons and the profes­sio­nal advice have thus ulti­m­ately led to two estab­lished compa­nies being retai­ned in Kempen and jobs being secured.”

Estab­lished full-range supplier
The compa­nies Ther­mo­glas and Trie­nes were foun­ded in Kempen on the Lower Rhine in 1976 and 1954 respec­tively. Today, with just under 100 employees, both operate on the market as full-range suppli­ers in the produc­tion and proces­sing or finis­hing of glass. Special exper­tise exists in the produc­tion of insu­la­ting glass, for exam­ple as sound insu­la­tion, solar control or safety glass. In addi­tion, Trie­nes produ­ces and sells high-quality glass products with special proper­ties for indus­try and buil­ding cons­truc­tion. The main product is toug­he­ned safety glass (ESG), which is prepared on the company’s own machi­nes and then tempe­red in the ESG furnace. This gives the glass its safety-rele­­vant proper­ties and stabi­lity. For exam­ple, the ESG product SECURIT® has four to five times the breakage resis­tance of conven­tio­nal glass.

“Whether it’s coated glass, self-clea­­ning glass or safety glass, glass is now a high-tech mate­rial and the demands on produ­cers are conti­nu­ally incre­asing,” explains Schlatt. “Energy-effi­ci­ent cons­truc­tion or safety stan­dards in the cons­truc­tion sector are just a few drivers. Here in the Lower Rhine region, invest­ments have always been made so that we can meet custo­mer needs and legal stan­dards at all times.”

Well posi­tio­ned in the growing market
“We are inves­t­ing in two solid compa­nies with long-term stable earnings,” Kugel said. “The law incre­asingly prescri­bes the use of safety glass, and the ongo­ing cons­truc­tion boom and demand in future indus­tries have also brought glass produ­cers constant deve­lo­p­ment for years.” The new owners also see pros­pects in inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. Schlatt: “There is still a lot of poten­tial in expan­ding our natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal sales networks. And there is alre­ady an expan­sion area at our Kempen site for addi­tio­nal produc­tion capacity.”

About the S‑UBG Group
The S‑UBG Group, Aachen, has been the leading part­ner in the provi­sion of equity capi­tal for estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies (S‑UBG AG) and young, tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted start-ups (Tech­Vi­sion Fonds I) in the econo­mic regi­ons of Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach for over 30 years. S‑UBG AG invests in growth sectors; a high quality of corpo­rate manage­ment is a decisive invest­ment criter­ion for the invest­ment company. 2020, Tech­Vi­sion Fonds I für die Region Aachen, Krefeld & Mönchen­glad­bach GmbH & Co. KG was laun­ched toge­ther with NRW.BANK, the savings banks of Aachen, Krefeld and Düren, Kreis­spar­kasse Heins­berg, Stadt­spar­kasse Mönchen­glad­bach, Noma­in­vest, DSA Invest GmbH, inves­tors from the Dr. Babor Group and other private inves­tors. It provi­des around 40 million euros in seed capi­tal for the start-up scene in the region. Tech­Vi­sion Fonds I emer­ged from Seed Fonds III for the Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach region. As an exten­sion of Seed Fund III, Tech­Vi­sion Fund I now seeks to parti­ci­pate in subse­quent finan­cing rounds (Series A/B) of exis­ting port­fo­lio compa­nies in addi­tion to seed invest­ments. The S‑UBG Group curr­ently holds stakes in just under 40 compa­nies in the region, giving it a leading posi­tion in the Spar­­kas­­sen-Finan­z­­gruppe. www.s‑ubg.de; https://techvision-fonds.de/