Marktlink Merger & Acquisitions assists owners Easy Life in acquisition by Lifco Group

Description

Swedish listed Lifco Group has acquired a majority stake in Easy Life, a well-established business from Duiven active within aquaristics.

Marktlink assisted Easy Life's sellers Jan Laugeman and Toon Vermeule in the transaction. The former owners will remain involved with the company for several more years and will work with Lifco Group to find suitable management succession. The acquisition of Easy Life is Lifco s first transaction in the Dutch market.

About Easy Life

Easy Life is a renowned brand in aquaristics and is known for its innovative and high-quality products for aquariums and ponds, in the categories of water treatment, plant nutrition and fish health. Shareholders and current owners Jan Laugeman and Toon Vermeule saw a gap in the market in 1998 and started developing, producing and selling natural-based water treatment products.

Easy Life's success is due to well-performing product innovations by Laugeman and Vermeule, with which they have won several awards in recent years. Due to its strong reputation and high-quality Easy Life products, the organization now exports to more than 45 countries. Easy Life supplies retailers through wholesalers and distributors. Laugeman and Vermeule have built a strong foundation since Easy Life was founded in 1998.

Through Marktlink Mergers & Acquisitions they were looking for a suitable party to support the company in its international growth ambitions and facilitate the transition to new management. There was a lot of interest from Dutch and foreign strategic and Private Equity parties in Easy Life. In the end, the shareholders had the best feeling about Lifco.

Laugeman and Vermeule: 'Despite being such a large organization, the lines of communication at Lifco are short. Lifco believes in people as a factor and Easy Life fits well within the culture of the organization. At Easy Life, responsibilities are low down in the organization and Lifco believes in that. Employees are given a lot of responsibility and the value of the business in their eyes is a sum of the experience of the employees.'

Marktlink Mergers & Acquisitions

Acquisition advisor Fredrik Jonker of Marktlink Mergers & Acquisitions: 'The current owners have built a very efficient and intelligently organized business with high quality in-house developed, mostly organic, products. Despite the fact that they are already active in 45 countries, there is still a lot of room for deepening in the current markets. From Marktlink we regularly see that first generation companies with a focus on technology and product have untapped growth potential. We also saw that here. We think we have found the perfect partner with Lifco to support the company strategically, without having much operational involvement.'

About Lifco

Lifco has an infinite investment horizon and invests with the aim of fully incorporating a business into the group.

Ingvar Ljungqvist of Lifco said, Lifco believes that the best decisions are made locally. Our only goal is to help businesses perform better year on year, without zooming in on complicated reporting. We are impressed with Easy Life's historical growth and strong profitability. It is a strong brand with an excellent reputation. Easy Life fits perfectly within our portfolio and aligns with our business philosophy. We want to further develop its sales channel and increase its market share to further build Easy Life's potential.

Easy Life will fall under the Environmental Technology division within Lifco and will continue to operate on an organic basis.