PARAGON PARTNERS: Growth Capital for pro optik

Wendingen/ Munich — The foun­ders of pro optik sell the majo­rity of their shares to the Munich-based invest­ment company PARAGON PARTNERS and to long-time employee and mana­ging direc­tor Hanni­bal Zema­riam.

Peter Hoppert (co-foun­­der of pro optik): “With PARAGON PARTNERS we have found an expe­ri­en­ced and relia­ble finan­cial inves­tor and we will sell the majo­rity of our shares in the pro optik group to PARAGON PARTNERS and Hanni­bal Zema­riam.” Mr. Zema­riam, who has been employed by pro optik since 2003 and was appoin­ted as an addi­tio­nal mana­ging direc­tor in 2018, is inves­t­ing in pro optik toge­ther with PARAGON PARTNERS, conti­nuing the owner-driven culture. This step is the logi­cal conse­quence of the orderly succes­sion that has been in place for some time and with Mr. Zema­riam, pro optik is rely­ing on conti­nuity in the manage­ment of the company.

With the help of PARAGON PARTNERS, plan­ned acce­le­ra­ted growth and focus on expan­sion of the group is secu­red for the coming years. Mr. Zema­riam commen­ted, “I look forward to working with PARAGON PARTNERS and driving the group’s expan­sion both with the group-wide roll-out of hearing aids added to the product port­fo­lio in 2019, as well as through the poten­tial acqui­si­tion of smal­ler chains.”

Marco Atto­lini, Mana­ging Part­ner of PARAGON PARTNERS, said, “We look forward to actively support­ing the manage­ment and employees of pro optik as a stable prin­ci­pal owner by inves­t­ing in the growth and sustainable deve­lo­p­ment of the company.”

The foun­ders, Rainer Hilde­brandt and Peter Hoppert, will also remain finan­ci­ally asso­cia­ted with pro optik. “The trust of our part­ners is important to us. That’s why we will conti­nue to hold a finan­cial stake in pro optik, provide advi­sory support to the new prin­ci­pal owners and be available to our part­ners as a trus­ted cont­act,” says Hildebrandt.

About pro optik
pro optik is the third largest opti­cian chain in Germany with 145 bran­ches. The company gene­ra­ted EUR 125 million in exter­nal sales in 2018. Based in Wend­lin­gen, Germany, pro optik looks back on a successful deve­lo­p­ment and conti­nuous growth since its foun­da­tion by Peter Hoppert and Rainer Hilde­brandt in 1987. A signi­fi­cant mile­stone in the recent past is the expan­sion of the product range to include hearing acoustics.