WEPA to Acquire Van Houtum in Swalmen, Netherlands

WEPA Hygieneprodukte has signed a contract to acquire all shares in Van Houtum Group Holding, located in the Netherlands. The acquisition is expected to be concluded in the coming weeks and is subject to the approval of the competition authorities. The contracting parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Van Houtum produces in Swalmen, in the Netherlands, with 200 employees exclusively for the away-from-home (AfH) segment achieving a turnover of € 60 million. With the Satino Black brand, Van Houtum has established a leading position in the market for sustainable product solutions.

Martin Krengel, CEO of the WEPA Group, explains: "We are looking forward to further develop with Van Houtum an AfH-specialist rooted in tradition and the Satino brand in the WEPA Group. The values of the family business are very similar and the product ranges complement each other well. WEPA intends on expanding the Satino brand and the private label offering, especially from the specialized AfH-locations in Müschede, Piechowice and Swalmen, as well as to offer from a single source."

Henk van Houtum, owner of Van Houtum, adds: "I am very delighted that our family business is moving into such good hands this way". The managing director of Van Houtum, Bas Gehlen, adds: "I am convinced that the company Van Houtum and the Satino brand have a better perspective in the WEPA Group than today as an independent company."

The WEPA Group is one of the three largest providers in the European tissue market, with over 3,000 employees and a turnover of approx. €1 billion. This takeover would also turn WEPA into a major player in the AfH sector, with a turnover of over €180 million..

The WEPA Group is a medium-sized family-owned company with around 3,000 employees at 11 locations in Europe. Founded in 1948 as Westfälische Papierfabrik, WEPA began as a trading company, developed into a processing company and has been successful since 1958 in its current core business as a paper manufacturer.

WEPA produces convincing hygiene papers and offers its customers solutions that focus on the consumer needs in Europe. With 20 paper machines, a total quantity of 750,000 tons/yr of high quality toilet paper, kitchen towels, handkerchiefs, cosmetics, napkins, industrial papers and towel papers are produced. In the consumer sector, the products are marketed mainly as private labels to the European food retailers. In addition, the WEPA Professional division supplies a complete hygienic paper and dispenser system specifically for the "wash room and cleaning" applications to the Away-from-Home sector.

Since its foundation, the annual revenue of the WEPA Group has continuously increased, now totaling around €1bn, which represents a market share in Germany of approximately 25 percent and a European market share of 7 percent in the hygienic paper market.