Silverfleet Capital sells 7days to Chequers Capital and Paragon Partners

Munich, London, Paris — Silver­fleet Capi­tal, the pan-Euro­­pean private equity firm, has signed an agree­ment to sell 7days to a consor­tium of inves­tors inclu­ding Chequers Capi­tal and Para­gon Part­ners. 7days is a provi­der of work­wear for medi­cal profes­si­ons head­quar­te­red in Germany. For Silver­fleet Capi­tal, the gross money multi­ple is 3.1x. Details of the tran­sac­tion, which is still subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory appr­oval and is expec­ted to close in Janu­ary 2021, are not being disclosed.

7days was foun­ded in 1999 in Lotte near Osna­brück. Today, the company is a leading supplier of modern and inno­va­tive work­wear for medi­cal profes­si­ons. 7days designs, manu­fac­tures and distri­bu­tes a wide range of high-quality products, from jackets to lab coats, for more than 300,000 health­care custo­mers in twelve count­ries, inclu­ding Germany, Austria, Switz­er­land, France, Belgium, the Nether­lands and Scandinavia.

7days combi­nes a fully inte­gra­ted multi-chan­­nel distri­bu­tion plat­form, inclu­ding both cata­log marke­ting and strong e‑commerce chan­nels, with a verti­cally inte­gra­ted busi­ness model with diver­si­fied supply chains and in-house CSR (1)-compliant design and manu­fac­tu­ring capa­bi­li­ties. This enab­led the company to achieve stable, coun­ter­cy­cli­cal growth in its home market and also inter­na­tio­nally. Today, 7days employs 240 people across four loca­ti­ons and is expec­ted to gene­rate reve­nues of over €40 million in 2020 — repre­sen­ting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% during Silverfleet’s holding period. 7days is a certi­fied member of amfori BSCI (Busi­ness Social Compli­ance Initia­tive) — an initia­tive aimed at impro­ving social stan­dards in value chains world­wide — and is commit­ted to the BSCI Code of Conduct for Fair and Social Production.

Silver­fleet inves­ted in 7days from its mid-market fund in early 2018. Against the back­drop of a highly frag­men­ted health­care work­wear market, Silver­fleet saw great poten­tial here for sustainable long-term growth and expan­sion into new markets. Ther­e­fore, Silver­fleet desi­gned and imple­men­ted a successful trans­for­ma­tion and inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion stra­tegy for 7days, as part of which the company acqui­red Praxis Herning, a Danish provi­der of medi­cal work­wear for the Scan­di­na­vian market, in Decem­ber 2018, signi­fi­cantly expan­ding its geogra­phic reach. In addi­tion, Silver­fleet supported the company during its nearly three-year holding period in expan­ding its online sales chan­nels and imple­men­ting inter­na­tio­nally reco­gni­zed, CSR-compli­­ant procu­re­ment and produc­tion standards.

“We would like to take this oppor­tu­nity to thank Ulrich Dölken and Cars­ten Meyer, CEO and CFO of 7days, for the trustful coope­ra­tion over the past years. 7days is a typi­cal exam­ple of a Silver­fleet invest­ment — a leading company in a niche market with compel­ling unique selling propo­si­ti­ons, an expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team and poten­tial for trans­for­ma­tion and opera­tio­nal impro­ve­ment as well as inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion. We are proud to have supported 7days on its growth trajec­tory to date and in its trans­for­ma­tion into a leading and inno­va­tive provi­der of high quality and fashionable work­wear for the health­care sector in Europe. We are plea­sed to place 7days in such capa­ble hands as it conti­nues on its growth path,” said Joachim Braun, Part­ner at Silver­fleet Capital.

“We have taken a number of important steps to further expand 7days’ posi­tion as a market leader, both orga­ni­cally and through a stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion. 7days has not only proven resi­li­ent to crisis, parti­cu­larly during the current COVID-19 pande­mic, but has also deli­vered sustained above-market growth,” adds Benja­min Hubner, Prin­ci­pal at Silver­fleet Capital.

“In recent years, we have been able to posi­tion oursel­ves very well in the Euro­pean market for medi­cal work­wear by impro­ving our online sales chan­nels and deve­lo­ping new custo­mer segments based on their indi­vi­dual requi­re­ments. We were also able to expand into the Scan­di­na­vian market through a targe­ted stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion. This would not have been possi­ble without the support of Silver­fleet Capi­tal, for which we would like to express our grati­tude. With the support of our new part­ners Chequers Capi­tal and Para­gon Part­ners, we want to conti­nue to achieve the highest custo­mer satis­fac­tion with high-quality work­wear for medi­cal profes­sio­nals in the future,” say Ulrich Dölken and Cars­ten Meyer, CEO and CFO of 7days.

At Silver­fleet, Joachim Braun and Benja­min Hubner were respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion. The invest­ment company was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by William Blair (M&A), PwC (Finan­cial, Tax, ESG), Latham & Watkins (Tax), McDer­mott (Corpo­rate Legal), Shear­man & Ster­ling (Banking Legal) and goetz­part­ners (Commer­cial).

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal has been active as a private equity inves­tor in the Euro­pean mid-market for more than 30 years. The 31-strong invest­ment team works from Munich, London, Paris, Stock­holm and Amsterdam.
Nume­rous invest­ments were made from the second inde­pen­dent fund closed in 2015 with a volume of 870 million euros, inclu­ding: Coven­tya, a French deve­lo­per of specialty chemi­cals; Sigma Compon­ents, a manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion compon­ents for civil avia­tion based in the United King­dom; Life­time Trai­ning, a provi­der of trai­ning programs based in the United King­dom; Pumpen­fa­brik Wangen, a manu­fac­tu­rer of specialty pumps based in Germany; Riviera Travel, an opera­tor of escor­ted group tours and crui­ses based in the United King­dom; 7days, a German provi­der of medi­cal work­wear, among others.

Silver­fleet Capi­tal also main­ta­ins an invest­ment team focu­sed on smal­ler middle-market compa­nies that has alre­ady made two successful invest­ments: STAXS Conta­mi­na­tion Control Experts, a leading supplier of clean­room supplies in the Bene­lux (closed in Janu­ary 2019), and Trust­Quay, a leading provi­der of trust and fund admi­nis­tra­tion soft­ware for the trust and corpo­rate services industry.
Silver­fleet achie­ves value growth by inves­t­ing in compa­nies in its core sectors that bene­fit from speci­fic, long-term trends. Silver­fleet supports these compa­nies in their future growth stra­te­gies. As part of these stra­te­gies, invest­ments are made in orga­nic growth drivers, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons or opera­tio­nal impro­ve­ment proces­ses. Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted €2.1 billion in 32 companies.
Silver­fleet specia­li­zes in four key indus­tries: Busi­ness and Finan­cial Services, Health­care, Manu­fac­tu­ring, and Retail and Consu­mer Goods.
Since 2004, the private equity inves­tor has inves­ted 29% of its assets in compa­nies head­quar­te­red in the DACH region, 32% in the UK and Ireland, 21% in Scan­di­na­via, 15% in France and Bene­lux (includes an invest­ment sourced in Belgium and head­quar­te­red in the US), and 3% in other count­ries. www.silverfleetcapital.com

About Chequers
Origi­nally French subsi­diary of the Char­ter­house Group foun­ded in Paris in 1972. Inde­pen­dent since 2000 under the name Chequers Capi­tal. 300 invest­ments made in Europe in just under 50 years. 2017 Closing of Chequers Capi­tal XVII with a volume of €1.1 billion.

Our invest­ment stra­tegy: compa­nies with a value of €80 million to €500 million. Capi­tal invest­ment of €40 million to €150 million per tran­sac­tion. Compa­nies based in France, Germany, Italy, Bene­lux count­ries, Switz­er­land and Spain. Acti­vity in the indus­trial, service and commer­cial sectors. Wide range of tran­sac­tion types: MBO & LBO, indus­try conso­li­da­tion, deve­lo­p­ment capi­tal, owner­ship restruc­tu­ring, spin-off, turn­around. As majo­rity or mino­rity share­hol­der in close coope­ra­tion with manage­ment for a period of 5 to 10 years. www.chequerscpaital.com