GERMANY – Luxembourg-based private equity and investment advisory firm CVC Capital Partners has acquired a majority stake in Germany-based sports nutrition business The Quality Group.
Founders Benjamin Burkhardt and Christian Wolf will retain a minority shareholding in The Quality Group (TQG) and have agreed to reinvest in the business, CVC said in a statement.
Financial terms behind the transaction, which is expected to close by the end of the second quarter, subject to regulatory approval, were not disclosed.
TQG was set up late in 2020 through the merger of sports nutrition firms ESN and More Nutrition and serves the DACH markets – Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Other brands within the portfolio include Fitmart, Got7 and Synergy encompassing protein powders, bars, and snacks, along with supplements and energy drinks.
The company’s headquarters and production facilities are based in Elmshorn near Hamburg and it employs 360 people.
Direct interaction with its customers is at the heart of the TQG’s strategy – from the sale of products via own web shops to their partnerships with 300 influencers who are part of its brands’ loyal customer base.
Through these partnerships and its own channels, the sports nutrition company reaches five million followers daily on various social media platforms, according to CVC.
CVC said in a statement it plans to “accelerate the business’s growth path by scaling its logistics activities and improving the customer experience, as well as expanding the product portfolio in both the DACH region and internationally”.
CVC is a diversified investor across multiple industries. In food, the private-equity firm acquired Vivartia in 2020, a supplier of dairy products, rice and pasta in Spain.
It also holds a majority stake in Spain-based branded olive oil producer Deoleo. In Indonesia, CVC invested in biscuits and snacks maker Garudafood.
Earlier, the private equity group pushed back plans for a stock market listing in the first half of this year, with market turbulence standing in the way of a multibillion-euro flotation that it had hoped to carry out in June.
The buyout group has told analysts that it expects its initial public offering, a historic shift for a secretive firm that has been in private hands for three decades, to take place this autumn or early in 2023, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
CVC plans to float just 10 per cent of its business, one of the people said. The group was valued at about €15bn last year when it agreed to sell a minority stake to Blue Owl’s Dyal Capital unit.
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