Possehl forms new business segment “Identification Solutions” through further acquisitions
The Lübeck-based Possehl Group has acquired all of the shares in the companies Eidos S.p.A. headquartered in Chieri/Italy and Nordvalls Etikett AB headquartered in Sjöbo/Sweden. Thus, only just a few days after acquiring 50 % of the shares in cbb software GmbH, Possehl is in a position to report a further two corporate acquisitions.
In the future, the two new companies Eidos and Nordvalls, together with the two existing corporate groups Logopak Systeme and Novexx Solutions, will form the new independent business segment “Identification Solutions” within the Possehl Group, expanding the group’s corporate portfolio to nine independently operating business segments. “Unlike many other groups of companies, in particular those listed on a stock exchange, we consciously pursue the idea of a widely diversified corporate portfolio to achieve a broader spread of risk. This strategy also corresponds to our shareholder’s – the non-profit Possehl Foundation – long-term business orientation”, says Uwe Lüders, CEO at Possehl.
The business segment Identification Solutions will prospectively achieve annual sales of more than 125 million Euro and employ around 750 staff in eleven different countries. “Within only a few years, through the targeted acquisition of a variety of medium-sized enterprises by our SME Business Participations division, we have succeeded in building a strong, competitive and well-positioned new business segment in a global market. Thus we have successfully implemented one part of both the business model and strategy of our SME Business Participations division, which is to develop independent business segments for the Possehl Group by systematically acquiring existing companies, applying the buy-and-build principle. While we will continue to pursue this strategy in the future, what we have achieved is all the more satisfactory and remarkable given that buying an “already established“ group of companies of this kind would, at the present time, be much more expensive“, says Mario Schreiber, whose areas of responsibility in his position as a member of the Management Board at Possehl include the SME Business Participations division as well as the new business segment Identification Solutions. In 2011, Possehl bought Logopak from the former sole shareholder Christopher Hastings-Long, followed by the acquisition of the Danish subsidiary LSS Etikettering, also from private ownership, in 2014 and Novexx Solutions purchased from the American Group Avery Dennison in 2015.
The new business segment comprises the development, production and sales of logistically integrated labelling systems serving as an interface between production and logistics, as well as digital thermal-transfer printers, self-adhesive labels and thermal-transfer films. “Identification, labelling and traceability of products and, subsequently, ensuring complete tracking of movements of goods is already of high relevance for many branches of industry, such as the food-, automobile and pharma industry, and will continue to gain in importance over the coming years. As an integrated globally operating group of companies with our modern product portfolio, extensive know-how and comprehensive software expertise, we are now able to offer a wide range of standard as well as customised solutions“, outlines Possehl’s Board Member Mario Schreiber and, looking ahead, adds: “The market for so-called Auto-ID technologies offers continued opportunities for growth and development in the future which we intend to take full advantage of through further supplemental acquisitions of regional companies or complementary products.”
About Possehl
The Possehl Group, operating worldwide under the leadership of Management-Holding L. Possehl & Co. mbH, is a diversified corporate group currently comprising nine decentrally organised business segments that are economically independent of each other. In addition to L. Possehl & Co. mbH, the Possehl Group comprises more than 160 subsidiaries in more than 30 different countries. In the financial year 2016, the Group generated revenues of 3.9 billion Euro. Possehl currently employs around 12,500 people worldwide.
The company was founded in 1847 by Ludwig Possehl as a local hardware store in Lübeck. Since 1919, the non-profit Possehl Foundation has been the sole shareholder. This corporate structure enables the Possehl Group to operate independently and provides the basis for long-term entrepreneurial decisions.