Built to last

10 years after exit, the company continues to grow with an increasing grip on the world.

With smart technology that lifts everything from airplane wings to chocolate pralines in the manufacturing industry, Piab’s triumphant march across the world continues. An impressive journey of change that Altor was entrusted to drive for 10 years.

One of Sweden’s strengths is the many, relatively unknown industrial companies operating around the country. Often family-owned, with a clever entrepreneur in the background and smart technical solutions that are of great importance but receive little attention. One such company was Piab when Altor came into contact with the founder Peter Tell and his family in the early 2000s.

For decades, the company had developed cutting-edge technology for lifting and moving objects in the manufacturing industry using suction cups and vacuum. Now the family had different wishes for the future and wanted to find a new, active ownership.

“It was a diamond in the rough — their solution was much better than the competitors’ and they had a very entrepreneurial and collaborative culture in the company,” says Altor’s Bengt Maunsbach, who remembers the discovery of Piab with warmth.

In tough competition with other bidders, it was Altor who was entrusted with launching its plan to unlock the great potential seen in Piab, together with founder Peter Tell and his nephew Jacob Tell, who remained in the company. The long-established business was to be rebuilt in several stages. There were major changes, but they were implemented carefully, which meant that the company’s family-oriented entrepreneurial culture could be preserved despite the strong expansion.

Among the first measures was to tie together the many partly owned subsidiaries that were scattered around the world into one, common unit. After two years a new CEO with a background in large industrial companies came in with expertise that rebuilt the organisation and made it more efficient. After five years, the company had become a well-functioning success machine and it was time to shift into another gear, explains Bengt Maunsbach.

Bengt Maunsbach, Partner and Head of Industrials
“The founder Peter Tell continued to develop new fantastic solutions and we saw that Piab could become significantly bigger.”

The owners rolled up their sleeves and recruited a new CEO to reach out even more broadly with Piab’s solutions for industry. Anders Lindqvist was brought in from Atlas Copco with a mission — to dramatically accelerate growth.

“It was a fantastic industrial company with very professional order, even if there was a bit of a garage startup spirit left,” Anders says looking back at the journey.

Anders Lindqvist, Former CEO of Piab
“We had fantastic products and an incredibly good market. The last piece of the puzzle was to increase sales”

Anders Lindqvist and his team brought new expertise and energy, and then Piab really took off. Anders describes the recipe for success as the freedom of action and power generated by the consensus around the venture and the support that came from the owners and management. “Everything went very fast. It was like driving a race car when I came from an oil tanker, and you could quickly see the effect. It unleashed all the potential that had been waiting to come to life. It was great fun, among the most fun things I’ve ever done.”

After 10 years together and a journey of significant success, it was EQT and later Investor who took Piab on. “It’s always mixed feelings to let go of a company like Piab but in private equity it makes sense to divest after 10 years and a very large value increase” says Bengt Maunsbach.

Bengt Maunsbach, Partner and Head of Industrials
“Together we built a company to last. I got to learn so much from working closely with Peter and Jacob Tell of the founding family, and of course Anders and the rest of the excellent management team behind the successful company”

Published: Aug 15 2025

Built to last

Related

What we’re reading