Equistone subsidiary KWC Group sells Home division to sanitary specialist Paini

Zurich/Unterkulm/Pogno — The KWC Group, desi­gner and manu­fac­tu­rer of faucets and access­ories for kitchens, bath­rooms and wash­rooms and part of the Equis­tone Funds port­fo­lio since 2021, is selling its Home busi­ness to the Italian sani­tary specia­list Paini S.p.A. Rubi­net­te­rie (“Paini”). KWC Home and Paini are thus conti­nuing their long-stan­­ding part­ner­ship under one roof. Details of the tran­sac­tion will not be disclosed.

KWC Group — form­erly a divi­sion of the Swiss Franke Group opera­ting under the name Franke Water Systems — is an inter­na­tio­nally active premium manu­fac­tu­rer and system provi­der for sani­tary equip­ment, fittings and water manage­ment systems. Follo­wing the successful sale of the KWC Medi­cal divi­sion to the Alum­bra Group in Janu­ary 2024, the Group, head­quar­te­red in Unter­kulm, Switz­er­land, now serves a broad custo­mer base with its three divi­si­ons — KWC Home, KWC Profes­sio­nal and OEM. In addi­tion to private end custo­mers, this also includes (semi-)public insti­tu­ti­ons such as airports, shop­ping centers, schools, sports and leisure faci­li­ties, hotels as well as hospi­tals, nursing homes and reti­re­ment homes. The KWC Group has seve­ral inter­na­tio­nal loca­ti­ons and compe­tence centers world­wide, inclu­ding in Switz­er­land, Germany, the UK, China and the Middle East, and curr­ently employs around 1,000 people.

Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe acqui­red a majo­rity stake in KWC Group in April 2021. Toge­ther with the support of Equis­tone, the Group is now selling its fast-growing Home divi­sion. KWC Home is the market leader in Switz­er­land in the manu­fac­ture of high-quality bath­room, kitchen and cate­ring fittings and serves custo­mers in the private sector. In recent years, the KWC Group has conti­nuously deve­lo­ped its Home busi­ness with the support of Equis­tone: With targe­ted invest­ments in the areas of digi­ta­liza­tion and IT, as well as in the product port­fo­lio — inclu­ding the intro­duc­tion of new products — KWC Home was able to further streng­then its alre­ady leading posi­tion in the Swiss dome­stic market as well as in Germany. Another important mile­stone was the successful repo­si­tio­ning of the divi­sion follo­wing the carve-out from the Franke Group and the estab­lish­ment of a strong bran­ding presence for KWC Home as an expe­ri­en­ced, inno­va­tive sani­tary partner.

Toge­ther with the new owner Paini, the growth of KWC Home is now to be taken to a new level: “In recent years, as part of the KWC Group and with the support of Equis­tone, we have succee­ded in further streng­thening our leading market posi­tion in Switz­er­land and expan­ding our presence in Germany. We look forward to conti­nuing this successful course with our new owner and long-stan­­ding part­ner Paini,” explains Urs Tschopp, CEO at KWC Home.

“KWC Home is excel­lently posi­tio­ned on the market. With Paini, we have found the ideal new part­ner for KWC Home to conti­nue the growth course we have initia­ted and to further deve­lop the tradi­tio­nal KWC brand in the future,” adds David Zahnd, Part­ner at Equis­tone, Zurich (photo © Equistone).

Roman E. Hegglin, Invest­ment Direc­tor at Equis­tone, adds: “The Equis­tone funds will now focus on the successful deve­lo­p­ment of the KWC Profes­sio­nal busi­ness, which is well posi­tio­ned for further growth.

On the Equis­tone side, the funds were advi­sed by Stefan Maser, David Zahnd and Roman E. Hegglin.

Advi­sors Equis­tone: DC Advi­sory (M&A), Bär & Karrer (Legal) and KPMG (Finan­cial).

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe

The funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe are among the most active Euro­pean equity inves­tors with a team of more than 40 invest­ment specia­lists in seven offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. The Equis­tone funds invest prima­rily in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since incep­tion, the funds have inves­ted equity in more than 180 tran­sac­tions. The port­fo­lio of Equis­tone funds curr­ently compri­ses around 40 compa­nies across Europe. www.equistonepe.com

About KWC Group
https://kwc.com/de_DE

About KWC Home
https://kwc.com/de_CH/home

About Paini S.p.A. Rubinetterie
https://www.paini.com/