VR Equitypartner acquires stake in plastics specialist Schmidt + Bartl

Frank­furt am Main / Villin­­gen-Schwen­­nin­­gen — The Fran­k­­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner, toge­ther with co-inves­­tor Unter­neh­mens­Gut, is acqui­ring a stake in Schmidt + Bartl GmbH, the Black Forest expert for tech­ni­cal plas­tics, and will contri­bute not only capi­tal but also exten­sive know-how for further growth to the part­ner­ship. Heri­bert Rott­ler, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Schmidt + Bartl, will retain an inte­rest in the company as part of the tran­sac­tion and will conti­nue to act as Mana­ging Direc­tor. Finan­cial details of the share acqui­si­tion will not be disclosed.

Schmidt + Bartl GmbH (“S&B”) was foun­ded in 1985 in Villin­­gen-Schwen­­nin­­gen and has been active in the distri­bu­tion of semi-finis­hed plas­tic products, plas­tic piping systems and elas­to­mers for almost 30 years. Further­more, S&B has been active in the produc­tion of small-volume tech­ni­cal plas­tic and elas­to­mer parts for over 15 years and uses a wide range of machi­nery for this purpose, from CNC milling machi­nes to 3D prin­ters. Due to high mate­rial compe­ten­ces in plas­tic design, S&B advi­ses the deve­lo­p­ment depart­ments of its custo­mers from the idea to the produc­tion readi­ness of a product. The semi-finis­hed plas­tic products can be indi­vi­du­ally proces­sed in-house or extern­ally using various machi­ning proces­ses. With its very broad product port­fo­lio, ranging from stan­dard to high-perfor­­mance plas­tics, and its custo­mer and supplier rela­ti­onships that have been in place for seve­ral deca­des, S&B earns a annual sales of over EUR 20 million. The company is also effi­ci­ently posi­tio­ned in the area of energy supply, so that around one third of the total elec­tri­city consump­tion is covered by an in-house photo­vol­taic system.

In the course of the comple­ted tran­sac­tion, the mana­ging part­ner Sigrid Schmidt sells her shares. Its co-mana­­ging direc­tor of many years, Heri­bert Rott­ler, will conti­nue to hold an inte­rest in the company and remain mana­ging direc­tor by means of a reverse share­hol­ding. Toge­ther with VR Equi­typ­art­ner and Unter­neh­mens­Gut, the (partial) succes­sion is now to be secu­red and the successful growth course contin­ued. In addi­tion to expan­ding the custo­mer base from the chemi­cal indus­try, food tech­no­logy, rene­wa­ble ener­gies, the phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­try, mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, medi­cal and clean room tech­no­logy, and semi­con­duc­tor tech­no­logy, the range of products and produc­tion capa­city are also to be further expanded.

“With VR Equi­typ­art­ner and Unter­neh­mens­Gut, we have found long-term, finan­ci­ally strong and expe­ri­en­ced part­ners who at the same time have a lot of expe­ri­ence with succes­sion plan­ning. This crea­tes an excel­lent basis for the future and further deve­lo­p­ment of our company,” says Heri­bert Rott­ler, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Schmidt + Bartl GmbH.

Chris­tian Futter­lieb (photo), Mana­ging Direc­tor at VR Equi­typ­art­ner, also, is opti­mi­stic about the future: “In over 35 years of company history, Schmidt + Bartl GmbH has posi­tio­ned itself excel­lently in the field of plas­tics proces­sing and its distri­bu­tion. With the compa­nies DITTRICH+CO., KTP, DUOPLAST and other holdings, we have a broad back­ground of expe­ri­ence with regard to the mate­rial, and we see conti­nuous dyna­mic perfor­mance increa­ses in plas­tics over­all, and conse­quently also a stron­gly growing area of appli­ca­tion. This and the solid start­ing posi­tion of Schmidt + Bartl GmbH provide an excel­lent basis for exploi­ting further growth poten­tial, which we now intend to drive forward toge­ther with Unter­neh­mens­Gut and the exis­ting share­hol­der Heri­bert Rottler.”

“Schmidt+Bartl can look back on a long history of success with great tech­no­lo­gi­cal know-how and a high level of market, custo­mer and solu­tion orien­ta­tion. As a long-term inves­tor in medium-sized compa­nies, we are plea­sed to be able to support the company’s further growth plans and to contri­bute our exper­tise to the group of share­hol­ders,” adds Jens Fürbeth, Mana­ging Direc­tor at UnternehmensGut.

The tran­sac­tion team at VR Equitypartner:
Thiemo Bisch­off, Astrid Binder, Sebas­tian Leker, Alex­an­der Koch, Frank Wildenberg

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equitypartner:
Commer­cial: Blue­mont Consul­ting (Markus Frän­kel, Sascha Vollmerhausen)
Finan­cial / Tax: Grant Thorn­ton (Harald Weiß, Dr. Stefan Hahn)
Legal: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek (Dr. Rainer Herschlein)
Real estate: Drees & Sommer (Grze­gorz Pieluzek)
Cartel: KWM Europe (Tilman Siebert)