Paragon acquires film manufacturer DUO PLAST

Frank­furt am Main / Stutt­gart / Lauter­bach — The Fran­k­­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner, toge­ther with co-inves­­tor Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH (SüdBG), is selling its majo­rity stake in DUO PLAST Holding GmbH, which it acqui­red around six years ago. The remai­ning shares held by the manage­ment also change hands. The new owner of the successful high-perfor­­mance film manu­fac­tu­rer is the Munich-based private equity firm Para­gon Part­ners. The tran­sac­tion, which is pending regu­la­tory appr­oval, is expec­ted to close later in summer 2019; no finan­cial details are disclosed.

DUO PLAST Group, foun­ded in 1983, is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer in the pack­a­ging and stretch film market. The company is head­quar­te­red in Lauter­bach, Hesse, with addi­tio­nal produc­tion and sales bran­ches in Thurin­gia, Austria, France and Turkey. Its parti­cu­lar strengths lie in the acknow­led­ged high quality of its products and in the company’s high level of inno­va­tion and custo­mer orien­ta­tion. The product port­fo­lio consists of five busi­ness areas: stretch, stretch and wrap films for load secu­ring, films for silage appli­ca­ti­ons, barrier films for food pack­a­ging, and semi- and fully-auto­­ma­­tic pack­a­ging lines for indus­try. In addi­tion, the company’s range of services is roun­ded off by the globally unique tech­no­logy center for cargo and trans­port secu­rity and exten­sive service activities.

Dr. Edin Hadzic, photo, co-foun­­der and mana­ging direc­tor of PARAGON PARTNERS: “We are exci­ted about DUO PLAST’s long-stan­­ding tech­no­logy leader­ship, inno­va­tive strength and stable custo­mer base. We look forward to working toge­ther to further deve­lop DUO PLAST and support its next phase of growth with fresh equity.”

VR Equi­typ­art­ner and SüdBG acqui­red a majo­rity stake in DUO PLAST in 2013 as part of a succes­sion plan; the company’s foun­der and until then CEO and main share­hol­der Norbert Jäger moved to the Super­vi­sory Board at that time. During the part­ner­ship, DUO PLAST has contin­ued to grow — the company now employs about 150 people and turns over nearly 60 million euros a year. Exten­sive invest­ments in deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion took place and the company was able to push ahead with its internationalization.

“We are plea­sed that we were able to fulfill the trust placed in us by the foun­ding gene­ra­tion. In addi­tion to important invest­ments, mile­sto­nes in the further deve­lo­p­ment of DUO PLAST were above all the reor­ga­niza­tion of the manage­ment and the profes­sio­na­liza­tion of nume­rous proces­ses. Today, DUO PLAST is conside­red an inno­va­tion leader and has a corre­spon­din­gly outstan­ding market posi­tion,” explains Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner. Direc­tor Johan­nes Fleck adds to the successfully imple­men­ted cata­log of measu­res: “During its time as a port­fo­lio company of VR Equi­typ­art­ner and SüdBG, DUO PLAST has repo­si­tio­ned itself as a high-end supplier of extru­sion films with a strong sales focus — among other things by syste­ma­tiz­ing and pushing direct sales and key account manage­ment as well as estab­li­shing a unique sales approach.”

Erich Stei­ner, CEO of DUO PLAST, confirms the good coope­ra­tion: “I would like to thank the previous share­hol­ders for what we have achie­ved toge­ther. We have achie­ved what was inten­ded: the trans­fer of the company into trust­wor­thy hands, the conti­nua­tion of the successful growth and niche stra­tegy and the sustainable posi­tio­ning for the future of the company. We are now exci­ted about the next deve­lo­p­ment steps in which the new, entre­pre­neu­rial inves­tor intends to support us.”

About VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH
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. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million.

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equitypartner:

M&A: William Blair Inter­na­tio­nal, Frankfurt
Finan­cial, Tax, Commer­cial: Price­wa­ter­hous­e­Coo­pers, Munich, Stuttgart
Legal: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt
Envi­ron­men­tal: ERM, Munich, Neu-Isenburg