As a result of a shareholder change at Pacovis AG, based in Stetten (Switzerland), the Eser founding family is increasing its equity stake in the company and will hold a clear majority in the Pacovis Group going forward. Crédit Mutuel Equity, the international direct investment company of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, is acquiring a minority stake in Pacovis to support the family’s long-term plans for the company. With eight locations and sales offices in Europe, six of them in the DACH region, Pacovis is a leading solution provider for the food industry and the catering trade in the food and non-food sector. The products are manufactured in Switzerland at the company’s headquarters in Stetten and in Safenwil, as well as in Germany in Sassenberg and Füchtorf. The family-owned company operates a service center in Metzingen, Germany as well as a large logistics center in Stockerau near Vienna, Austria.
Pacovis, founded in 1935, is a highly specialized solutions provider for the food industry, the catering trade and retail in the areas of food solutions, food packaging, hygiene, cleaning and occupational safety as well as related consumables. As a full-service provider, the company advises and supplies a very broad range of customers, ranging from snack stands to large-scale catering, from crafts and commerce to industry, retailers, cash & carry and wholesalers. The family-owned company’s core competencies comprise a worldwide network of carefully selected, efficient and proven suppliers and logistic specialists, coupled with comprehensive expertise in procurement processes and a high level of service.
Pacovis operates in two fundamental business segments, which are viewed and addressed in an integrative way. In the food segment, the company offers its customers individual technological consultation, comprehensive services and specific, tailor-made products. This is based on highly competent in-house development teams that have all the food technology expertise in the areas of meat, fish and dairy processing, ice cream, delicatessen, spices, baked goods and convenience. Today the company processes 25,000 tons of food annually and actively utilizes 6,000 mostly customer-specific recipes.
In the non-food segment, comprising a total of around 12,000 items, Pacovis provides its customers with integrated solutions in the areas of packaging, consumables and industrial hygiene. A large number of the products are printed with customer-specific designs. Pacovis is a pioneer in sustainability. The well-established “Naturesse” brand stands for sustainable and functional packaging and catering solutions and already accounts for the majority of sales in this sector. The product range encompasses a very large number of items with a wide variety of units of quantity, an exceptionally high availability of goods and flexible delivery schedules.
In a very dynamic market, Pacovis is ideally positioned to enter a further phase of expansion through customer proximity, expert knowledge and a high level of service. In the coming years, the company plans to further strengthen its market position in the DACH region in all segments based primarily on organic growth and to significantly expand its production capacities for this purpose. In this way, Pacovis wants to provide its customers with the best possible service and meet the growing demand for individualization, regionalization, health and naturalness in the food industry in an optimum manner. The company will also benefit from Crédit Mutuel Equity’s experience in the food sector, its entrepreneurial know-how and its pan-European network.
Fabienne Mazières, Managing Director Switzerland, Germany and Austria at Crédit Mutuel Equity, said: “As an entrepreneurial financial partner, we share the same ideas of responsibility, sustainability and success as Pacovis. This is a basic prerequisite for our investments, which exclusively use equity from the Crédit Mutuel Group. We are therefore pleased to support Pacovis not only with capital, but also with our industry knowledge and our European network in its further growth activities.”
Thomas Bitzi, Director at Crédit Mutuel Equity, said: “Pacovis is a very successful family-owned business with an exceptional understanding of service. Based on expert knowledge in procurement and food technology, the company is excellently positioned in the market as a solution provider for the food industry and the catering trade. We are pleased to help Pacovis take the next step in its development and further expand its market position.”
Michael Eser, CEO and representative of the founding family of Pacovis, said: ”We serve our customers with products that might seem trivial but are actually indispensable for them – things that we think about a lot so that they do not have to. As an integrated solution provider for the food industry, catering trade and retail, we believe that reliability, sustainability, excellence and a consistent focus on the needs of our customers and markets are very important. Our far-reaching awareness of responsibility towards people and the environment, especially in global supply chains, has been one of the fundamental values of our corporate philosophy for decades. Crédit Mutuel Equity shares all these goals with us. We are very much looking forward to working with our new partner. Crédit Mutuel Equity’s ‘patient capital’ approach allows us to gradually expand our business and achieve our long-term growth plans with our family business, especially in the DACH region.”
About Pacovis
For nearly 90 years, Pacovis has been dynamically developing new concepts and pioneering solutions for the food industry and catering sector, always with its finger on the pulse of the times. In a constantly changing environment, Pacovis stands for quality, reliability and safety. The long-established family business has its roots in Switzerland. Today, 600 competent and passionate employees inspire customers in the spirit of Pacovis’ vision ”Happy to Serve.” On-site advice and technological support, perfect services and market-orientated solutions and products in Germany, Austria and Switzerland ensure the long-term success of the company.At the Stetten, Safenwil, Füchtorf and Sassenberg sites, the company produces most of the food products itself. With a network of close knit distribution partners, selected food and non-food solutions are also offered in many countries outside the DACH region.
About Crédit Mutuel Equity:
Crédit Mutuel Equity is home to all of the Private Equity activities of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale: Capital Développement (Capital Development), Capital Transmission (Capital Transfer), and Capital Innovation.
Crédit Mutuel Equity provides capital support to business leaders at all stages of development of their companies—from start-up to transfer—by giving them the resources and time required to implement their transformation projects. Crédit Mutuel Equity brings together over 350 business leaders, who share their beliefs and pose questions within a true network of entrepreneurs that allows each member, regardless of the nature of their project, to benefit from the experience of others. By investing its own capital (€ 4 billion), Crédit Mutuel Equity finances companies’ projects with timelines that are adapted to their growth strategies, in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Canada.
For more information: www.creditmutuel-equity.eu
About Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale:
A leading French bank and insurance company, with over 75,000 employees and serving over 29 million customers, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale offers a range of services to individual customers, local professionals, and companies of all sizes, via its 4,500 points of sale. Among the most solid banking groups in Europe, its equity capital amounted to € 53.2 billion and its CET1 ratio stood at 18.8% on 31 December 2021.
Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale brings together the Crédit Mutuel banks of the following federations: Centre Est Europe (Strasbourg), Sud-Est (Lyon), Île-de-France (Paris), Savoie-Mont Blanc (Annecy), Midi-Atlantique (Toulouse), Loire-Atlantique et Centre Ouest (Nantes), Centre (Orléans), Normandie (Caen), Dauphiné-Vivarais (Valence), Méditerranéen (Marseille), Anjou (Angers), Massif Central (Clermont-Ferrand), Antilles-Guyane (Fort-de-France), and Nord Europe (Lille). Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale also includes the Caisse Fédérale de Crédit Mutuel, the Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (BFCM) and all its subsidiaries, notably CIC, Euro-Information, Assurances du Crédit Mutuel (ACM), TARGOBANK, Cofidis, Banque Européenne du Crédit Mutuel (BECM), Banque de Luxembourg, Banque Transatlantique, and Homiris.
More information is available at www.creditmutuelalliancefederale.fr
Press contact
- Charles Barker Corporate Communications – Allemagne et Suisse : Jan P. Sefrin / Dr. Tobias Anslinger, +49 (0)69 79 40 90-26/-41, cmequity@charlesbarker.de