Altor Fund IV (“Altor”) has signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Gummigrossen i Örnsköldsvik AB (“Gummigrossen”) and RengasDuo OY (“RengasDuo”) from the founders including Mats-Ove Eriksson, Torsten Pettersson and Magnus von Haartman. The founders will remain as significant shareholders of the company and continue in their respective operational management roles.
Gummigrossen and RengasDuo are the market leaders among the manufacturer-independent tire distributors in Sweden and Finland respectively. The companies have had an impressive growth with a combined turnover of ca SEK 700m in 2018.
“We are enthusiastic about the partnership with Altor and believe that an active and experienced owner will further support our aspiration to be the partner of choice for our suppliers and customers. Altor’s industrial approach and their experience with building world-class companies will contribute to our continued strong growth”, says Mats-Ove Eriksson, founder and CEO of Gummigrossen.
“We are impressed with the businesses that the founders of Gummigrossen and RengasDuo have built, and are truly excited to partner with the management team for the next phase of development. The underlying trends in the tire distribution market have resulted in a more complex value-chain and we see an increasingly strong value proposition for Gummigrossen and RengasDuo to be a strong value-adding partner to both the tire manufacturers and the tire retailers. We are highly committed to extend the strong track record of the companies to date and to build the leading tire distributor across the Nordics” says Pål Stampe, Partner at Altor.
The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals.