Munich \u2014 Funds advi\u00adsed by Equis\u00adtone Part\u00adners Europe (\u201cEquis\u00adtone\u201d) sell their majo\u00adrity stake in Eschen\u00adbach Holding GmbH (\u201cEschen\u00adbach\u201d), Nurem\u00adberg. Eschen\u00adbach is a German market leader in eyewear and spec\u00adta\u00adcle frames, vision aids and ready-to-wear sunglas\u00adses with strong posi\u00adtio\u00adning in Europe and the USA. Toge\u00adther with the British Inspecs Group plc (\u201cInspecs\u201d), based in Bath and listed in London, Eschen\u00adbach will further expand this strong market posi\u00adtion. The details of the tran\u00adsac\u00adtion are not being disc\u00adlo\u00adsed and the tran\u00adsac\u00adtion remains subject to appr\u00adoval by the rele\u00advant compe\u00adti\u00adtion autho\u00adri\u00adties and the fulfill\u00adment of contrac\u00adtual conditions.<\/p>\n
Foun\u00added in 1913, Eschen\u00adbach is today the world market leader for opti\u00adcal vision aids and one of the leading global desi\u00adgners of eyewear and opti\u00adcal products. Whether with its charac\u00adterful eyewear brands, its magni\u00adfy\u00ading vision aids or its bino\u00adcu\u00adlars, the company combi\u00adnes award-winning design with relia\u00adble quality. This is also demons\u00adtra\u00adted by seve\u00adral \u201cRed Dot Awards\u201d that Eschen\u00adbach has recei\u00adved for its eyewear coll\u00adec\u00adtions in the past three years alone. Accor\u00adding to current figu\u00adres from the Gesell\u00adschaft f\u00fcr Konsum\u00adfor\u00adschung (GfK), the company has also been the leader in the German market for eyeglass frames in all price segments since the end of 2019.<\/p>\n
Barclays Private Equity, Equis\u00adto\u00adne\u2019s prede\u00adces\u00adsor, had acqui\u00adred Eschen\u00adbach toge\u00adther with the manage\u00adment team from the foun\u00adding family and a finan\u00adcial inves\u00adtor in July 2007. Since then, sales have increased from an initial \u20ac100 million to \u20ac143 million in 2019. This period also includes the stra\u00adte\u00adgic sale of the Tech\u00adni\u00adcal Optics divi\u00adsion in 2014 and the important acqui\u00adsi\u00adti\u00adons of the British eyewear supplier Inter\u00adna\u00adtio\u00adnal Ey<\/strong> ewear Limi\u00adted (2008) and the US eyewear brand Tura<\/strong> (2009).<\/p>\n Inspecs<\/strong>, a desi\u00adgner, manu\u00adfac\u00adtu\u00adrer and supplier of eyeglass frames and lenses was foun\u00added in 1988 by Robin Totter\u00adman (CEO). The Group produ\u00adces a wide range of eyewear frames for the opti\u00adcal, sunglas\u00adses and safety segments, which are sold either \u201cbran\u00added\u201d (under license or through the Group\u2019s own brands) or \u201cOEM\u201d (inclu\u00adding trade\u00admarks on behalf of retail custo\u00admers and unbran\u00added). As one of the few compa\u00adnies able to offer such a one-stop-shop solu\u00adtion for inter\u00adna\u00adtio\u00adnal retail chains, Inspecs is ideally posi\u00adtio\u00adned to conti\u00adnue gaining market share in the growing global eyewear market. Inspecs\u2019 custo\u00admers include inter\u00adna\u00adtio\u00adnally posi\u00adtio\u00adned retail\u00aders in the opti\u00adcal segment and beyond, as well as whole\u00adsa\u00adlers and inde\u00adpen\u00addent opti\u00adci\u00adans. The Group\u2019s distri\u00adbu\u00adtion network covers 80 count\u00adries and reaches appro\u00adxi\u00adm\u00adately 30,000 points of sale. Inspecs opera\u00adtes globally with offices in the UK, Portu\u00adgal, Scan\u00addi\u00adna\u00advia, the USA and China (Hong Kong, Macau and Shen\u00adzen), and manu\u00adfac\u00adtu\u00adring faci\u00adli\u00adties in Viet\u00adnam, China, the UK and Italy.<\/p>\n Dr. Marc Arens, Mana\u00adging Direc\u00adtor and Part\u00adner of Equis\u00adtone at the Munich loca\u00adtion: \u201cThe succes\u00adses of our time toge\u00adther, an extre\u00admely posi\u00adtive fiscal year 2019 and a new five-year growth stra\u00adtegy provide Eschen\u00adbach with the ideal basis for further successful corpo\u00adrate deve\u00adlo\u00adp\u00adment. The merger with Inspecs will give Eschen\u00adbach addi\u00adtio\u00adnal impe\u00adtus for a new chap\u00adter in its success story and sustain\u00adably streng\u00adthen its global compe\u00adti\u00adtive position.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn the very good coope\u00adra\u00adtion over the past ten years, Equis\u00adtone has always proven to be a relia\u00adble and growth-orien\u00adted inves\u00adtor and part\u00adner,\u201d adds Eschen\u00adbach CEO Dr. J\u00f6rg Zobel. \u201cToge\u00adther with Equis\u00adtone, we have found the ideal stra\u00adte\u00adgic part\u00adner for our future five-year stra\u00adtegy in Inspecs. We have big goals that we want to realize toge\u00adther with our new part\u00adner. In doing so, high stan\u00addards of craft\u00adsman\u00adship and quality as well as the opti\u00admal combi\u00adna\u00adtion of form and func\u00adtion in design shall remain essen\u00adtial for us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been follo\u00adwing Eschen\u00adbach\u2019s deve\u00adlo\u00adp\u00adment with inte\u00adrest for some time and are plea\u00adsed to welcome Germany\u2019s No. 1 eyewear manu\u00adfac\u00adtu\u00adrer and its team to the Inspecs Group. The combi\u00adna\u00adtion of these two indus\u00adtry-leading compa\u00adnies crea\u00adtes the sixth largest eyewear provi\u00adder in the world over\u00adall and will allow us to expand into addi\u00adtio\u00adnal key markets around the world while further diver\u00adsi\u00adfy\u00ading our combi\u00adned custo\u00admer and product port\u00adfo\u00adlio. This is an exci\u00adting time for the indus\u00adtry and I am alre\u00adady looking forward to working with Eschen\u00adbach,\u201d said Robin Totter\u00adman, CEO of Inspecs.<\/p>\n Respon\u00adsi\u00adble for the tran\u00adsac\u00adtion on the part of Equis\u00adtone are Michael H. Bork, Dr. Marc Arens and Julia Luc\u00e0. Equis\u00adtone and Eschen\u00adbach were advi\u00adsed on the tran\u00adsac\u00adtion by Lincoln Inter\u00adna\u00adtio\u00adnal (M&A), Ashurst (Legal), E&Y Parthe\u00adnon (Stra\u00adtegy) and E&Y (Finan\u00adcial & Tax). Inspecs was advi\u00adsed by Living\u00adstone (M&A), Gleiss Lutz (Legal) and KPMG (Finan\u00adcial & Tax).<\/p>\n About Equis\u00adtone Part\u00adners Europe<\/strong> About Eschen\u00adbach www.eschenbach-optik.com.<\/p>\n About Inspecs https:\/\/inspecs.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Munich \u2014 Funds advi\u00adsed by Equis\u00adtone Part\u00adners Europe (\u201cEquis\u00adtone\u201d) sell their majo\u00adrity stake in Eschen\u00adbach Holding GmbH (\u201cEschen\u00adbach\u201d), Nurem\u00adberg. Eschen\u00adbach is a German market leader in eyewear and spec\u00adta\u00adcle frames, vision aids and ready-to-wear sunglas\u00adses with strong posi\u00adtio\u00adning in Europe and the USA. Toge\u00adther with the British Inspecs Group plc (\u201cInspecs\u201d), based in Bath and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1366],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","news-category-deals-news-en","news-category-private-equity-news-en"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nEquis\u00adtone Part\u00adners Europe is one of the most active Euro\u00adpean equity inves\u00adtors with a team of more than 40 invest\u00adment specia\u00adlists in seven offices in Germany, Switz\u00ader\u00adland, the Nether\u00adlands, France and the UK. Equis\u00adtone prima\u00adrily invests in estab\u00adlished medium-sized compa\u00adnies with a good market posi\u00adtion, above-average growth poten\u00adtial and an enter\u00adprise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun\u00adda\u00adtion, equity has been inves\u00adted in around 150 tran\u00adsac\u00adtions in the DACH region and the Nether\u00adlands, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port\u00adfo\u00adlio curr\u00adently compri\u00adses over 40 compa\u00adnies across Europe, inclu\u00adding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz\u00ader\u00adland and the Nether\u00adlands. Equis\u00adtone is curr\u00adently inves\u00adt\u00ading from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with \u20ac2.8 billion. www.equistone.de \/ www.equistonepe.com.<\/p>\n