Belgium-based private equity firm Vendis Capital has announced the acquisition of Ecostyle, a Dutch retailer of sustainable garden care products.
What does Ecostyle offer?
Headquartered in Oosterwolde (the Netherlands), Ecostyle develops and markets ecologically responsible products mainly for garden care, alongside animal care and livestock.
The family-owned Ecostyle Group claims to develop and market ecologically responsible products for healthy soils, plants, crops, animals, and livestock since 1967.
The company aims to offer high quality and effective naturally-based alternatives to chemical-based products. Since its foundation, the company has been led by the Zwart family for three generations. Besides gardening consumers and pet owners, it also servers professional gardeners and the agriculture and horticulture sectors.
Ecostyle claims to have established leading positions and a local presence in all of its focus markets, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Austria, where it has longstanding relationships with the key garden centres and DIY retailers.
Next phase of growth
Vendis Capital has invested in Ecostyle alongside current CEO and family member Jeanine De Vries-Zwart, who will retain a minority stake and transition to a supervisory board role.
Ecostyle has been under the leadership of Jeanine de Vries-Zwart and the family for more than 50 years. She says, “Based on our interactions with Vendis over the past few months, we are very confident to have found the right new owner for Ecostyle who will support the next phase of its development whilst embracing and strengthening the company’s eco-friendly positioning, which has been at the core of our DNA across three generations.”
Martine Olijslagers-Kuip will join Ecostyle as its new CEO. She brings significant experience in marketing, sales, channel & category development, and sustainability from her past roles at Nestle. Martine will work with the current management team, consisting of CFO Jehannes Santema and CCO Henny Atsma.
The participation in Ecostyle represents the third investment within Vendis Capital III, the €300M fund that was launched in 2019.
About Vendis Capital
Vendis Capital is an independent private equity firm that focuses on building and investing in small to medium-sized branded consumer companies in Europe. Its capital structure includes both development capital and buyout capital.
The firm supports entrepreneurs and their companies through various stages of development such as helping its clients in establishing strategic roadmaps, planning and facilitating management additions, evaluating and executing acquisitions, and establishing proper monitoring and reporting tools.
Vendis Capital was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Diegem, Belgium.
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