Exit: Halder sells Wback stake to C.H. Guenther & Son
Frankfurt a. M. — Halder has sold its stake in the Wback Group (Bönen), the leading wholesale bakery in Germany specializing in soft rolls, to the Texas-based wholesale baker and food group C.H. Guenther & Son, LLC (San Antonio/Texas).
An estimated two million people bite into a WBack soft roll every day — but hardly anyone knows the manufacturer. The company is one of those unknown industry giants that operate as a supplier in the background. For example, WBack is not only the soft roll supplier for the fast food chain Burger King in Germany, but also supplies other system restaurants and hot dog providers with its burger buns.
Wback was founded in 2003, and in 2013 Halder took over the majority shareholding from founder Peter Wendeln as part of a succession solution. The company produces soft rolls in Bönen (North Rhine-Westphalia) and Leipheim (Bavaria) using state-of-the-art, highly automated equipment for renowned major customers from the system catering, food retail and food service sectors.
Through a strong expansion of production capacity, investments in packaging machines and an intermediate warehouse, Wback has realized high growth with existing and new customers, and sales have doubled since Halder joined the company. With the acquisition of Wback, C.H. Guenther further expands its product range and opens up additional European markets.
About Halder
Halder has been active as an equity investor in Germany since 1991 and has provided equity capital for succession and growth to 38 medium-sized companies. Together with the exits at Klingel medical metal, Aqua Vital, KEYMILE and BMB Manifattura Borse, the sale of Wback is the fifth investment sale from the portfolio of the Halder Germany II fund in the past six months. Overall, Halder has on average significantly more than doubled the value of the investments when they were sold. With the exit at Wback, the return of capital to Halder investors has exceeded the one billion euro mark.