Frank­furt am Main / Schwab­mün­chen — The invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner acqui­res a signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake in DITTRICH + CO (“DICO”) in order to sustain­ably support the growth course of the Bava­rian specia­list for plas­tic injec­tion molding. The two mana­ging part­ners will remain invol­ved in the course of the tran­sac­tion and expand the opera­tio­nal manage­ment of the company to include the previous tech­ni­cal sales mana­ger Manfred März, who will also acquire shares. This also prepa­res the succes­sion at DICO in perspec­tive. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close by the end of Octo­ber 2020.

DITTRICH + Co GmbH & Co KG, based in Schwab­mün­chen near Augs­burg, is a family-run specia­list supplier of tooling and injec­tion molded parts with just under 100 employees, and is one of Europe’s leading compa­nies in its core areas. The company was foun­ded in 1958 by Rudolf Dittrich and Peter Muschak, has been in the hands of the second gene­ra­tion, Armin Dittrich and Andreas Muschak, since 1995 and has been growing steadily for years. DICO’s service port­fo­lio covers the entire value chain of manu­fac­tu­ring tech­ni­cally sophisti­ca­ted products: Plas­tic injec­tion molding (ther­mo­pla­s­tics and also modern compo­si­tes), design, tool­ma­king, series produc­tion, finis­hing and assem­bly. The clear focus on sustaina­bi­lity, quality, diver­si­fi­ca­tion and custo­mer bene­fits of products and services means that DICO is often inte­gra­ted into custo­mers’ proces­ses at an early stage.

Toge­ther with VR Equi­typ­art­ner, the successful growth of recent years is now to be contin­ued — both orga­ni­cally and through possi­ble company acqui­si­ti­ons. The market envi­ron­ment for injec­tion molding tech­no­logy and mold­ma­king is proving to be highly frag­men­ted. DICO sees its exper­tise and exter­nal growth poten­tial here, parti­cu­larly in the area of complex parts produ­ced in small and medium-sized series. In addi­tion to the well-known exis­ting custo­mers from the furni­ture indus­try, consu­mer elec­tro­nics, pack­a­ging indus­try, auto­mo­tive & trans­port, mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring and medi­cine, further new custo­mers in selec­tive indus­tries are to be added. At the same time, the company’s own manu­fac­tu­ring exper­tise and capa­city are being syste­ma­ti­cally expanded.

“In VR Equi­typ­art­ner, we have found a part­ner for the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company who also brings a great deal of expe­ri­ence in succes­sion plan­ning and who shares our entre­pre­neu­rial philo­so­phy,” say Armin Dittrich and Andreas Muschak. Future co-mana­­ging direc­tor Manfred März adds, “Our know-how regar­ding complex shapes and special mate­ri­als is vast. We look forward to working with VR Equi­typ­art­ner, who will now help us to further scale this unique knowledge.”

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner, explains: “With DICO, we are ente­ring into an invest­ment in an excel­lently posi­tio­ned company whose order situa­tion is bril­li­ant and which has much further poten­tial in view of a steadily growing market. The company is not only a successful specia­list manu­fac­tu­rer of sophisti­ca­ted products, but also an excel­lent under­stan­ding of its custo­mers. A high recy­cling ratio and level of auto­ma­tion comple­ment these first-class future prospects.”

VR Equi­typ­art­ner is making the invest­ment toge­ther with its subsi­diary VR Equity Gesell­schaft für regio­nale Entwick­lung in Bayern mbH, which was provi­ded with funding from the Euro­pean Union for the promo­tion of inno­va­tive compa­nies in Bava­ria (ERDF funds) as part of a part­ner­ship with the Free State of Bavaria.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH at a glance:
VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­­ted manner and with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, corpo­rate succes­sion or share­hol­der chan­ges. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, the central insti­tu­tion of the coope­ra­tive banks in Germany, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment ahead of short-term exit thin­king. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 60 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 400 million.

Advi­sor VR Equitypartner:

Commer­cial: Blue­mont Consul­ting GmbH, Munich, with Markus Frän­kel, Sebas­tian Rütt­gers, and Bene­dict Sevov

Finan­cial: TAP Dr. Schlum­ber­ger Krämer Pothorn & Part­ner mbB Wirt­schafts­prü­fungs­ge­sell­schaft, Munich, with Andreas Krämer, Stef­fen Bannen­berg and Andreas Seidemann

Legal & Tax: McDer­mott Will & Emery Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP, Frank­furt, with Dr. Michael Cziesla, Dr. Heiko Kermer, Norman Wasse, Marcus Fischer, Dr. Marion von Grön­heim, Isabelle Müller

Consul­tant of DITTRICH + CO:

Kloep­fel Corpo­rate Finance GmbH, Munich, with Dr. Heiko Frank and Niko­lai Üstündağ

PKF WULF ENGELHARDT KG Steu­er­be­ra­tungs­ge­sell­schaft, Augs­burg, with Chris­toph Kalm­bach and Monika Gigler

Gütt Olk Feld­haus Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB, Munich, with Dr. Sebas­tian Olk, Adrian von Prit­t­witz and Gaffron, Domi­nik Forst­ner and Ricarda Theis