Marcel Belt sold his business the Green Soap Company to French cleaning giant Altaïr. After conquering the Netherlands, he wants to get his light-green cleaning products on foreign shelves as well. 'It's mainly a matter of keeping on the gas.'
Starting a start-up at the age of 51. Not many people dare to do that. Marcel Belt just did it. In 2015, the born Hagenaar - who grew up in the Achterhoek region - already had a brilliant corporate career behind him at the cleaning divisions of Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser. There, he had to deal daily with cleaning agents that contained quite a few chemical ingredients.
Belt sees room for a light green and affordable brand for consumers with a heart for a clean planet. He put all his retirement money into a new start-up in 2015 and is marketing a range of plant-based bottles of hand soap, laundry detergent and toilet cleaner under the name Marcel's Green Soap.
The beginning did take some getting used to. From his office and warehouse located in a former household school in Haarlem Belt goes to the stores himself to get his products on the shelves. Belt: 'At the weekend I stood in the local supermarket with a Marcel's Green Soap body warmer: ma'am, would you like to smell? Try it, this bottle costs only 2.99 euros. Anything to bring our products to the attention of housewives.'
But the efforts were not in vain, and his products are catching on. Within two years, Marcel's Green Soap is already on the shelves of hundreds of stores.
In 2017, Belt struck a nice blow by acquiring Triangle Soap from his former employer Unilever. For Unilever, Triangle was a small and laborious brand with little margin. In fact, it had been languishing on the shelf for years. Through his contacts at Unilever, Belt managed to get to the table early on, with the favor factor playing a big role. Within three months, the deal was done. Together with the existing portfolio, the Green Soap Company was doing 2.5 million euros in revenue at the time.
Anno 2024, Marcel's Green Soap has become the largest eco-brand in the Netherlands. The Green Soap Company (including Triangle) did some 20 million euros in revenue last year, 85 to 90 percent of which was in the Netherlands. Fifteen people work for the business. After conquering the Netherlands, Belt wants to enter Europe with Marcel's Green Soap.
Only, he is realistic enough to recognize that that will not succeed on its own. Or at least it will take a very long time. And so at the end of last year Belt started looking for a strategic party with whom he could conquer the European market together. Because he still sees many growth opportunities for the business, especially abroad. 'In the end, it is mainly a matter of continuing to accelerate.'
One of the first questions we at Brookz always hear from entrepreneurs is: are there any buyers for my business? How interested were potential buyers in Marcel's Green Soap?
'Pretty big. Our goal was to eventually have three to four bids to choose from. So then we started calculating backwards. If you want to be left with three to four bids, you have to get six to eight initial bids. If you want to get six to eight initial bids, you have to have exploratory talks with 12 to 16 parties. If you want to hold exploratory talks with twelve to sixteen parties, you have to write to about thirty to forty parties. In the end, we approached fifty international parties with our teaser. We compiled that list from parties I knew and parties my adviser had had contact with from his previous assignments. But we also just went into the supermarket together on a Friday afternoon. To see which other producers of detergents and cleaning products we could approach.
And did your math work out?
'Yes. Even better. In the end, fourteen potential buyers came by here in Haarlem and I was able to choose from ten bids. Some were not that different from each other, because they naturally had the same estimation regarding revenue, margins and ultimately valuation.'
Ten different bids. Why did it become Altaïr?
'First of all, Altaïr fits in perfectly with our ambition for international expansion. They sell cleaning products in 45 European countries, including France, Spain, Belgium and Poland. In particular, they know the French and Spanish markets inside out. What set Altair apart was that during the very first meeting here at the table, they said they were very impressed with our story. They were really enthusiastic and interested. I thought that was a nice and positive perspective. Often parties start negotiating on day one by especially not showing how much they like you. Because otherwise the price will only go up. But I find that really two separate discussions.'
Didn't those other parties do that?
'Well, I noticed it a lot less there. They were very much in it from their own point of view, why I want to buy you. I found that unfortunate. And private equity comes mainly with a financial story of how they are going to do it and how much money we are going to make together. But I care less about that.
And what about your former employers Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser. Were they not interested?
'Both businesses were on our long list, but I knew in advance that we were still a size too small for them in terms of revenue. I did inform them of my plans, but it was no surprise that they let this deal slip by.
The French are not known as flexible negotiators. How did the talks with Altaïr go?
'Most important was that both parties were eager to make this deal. That contributes to not sitting at the negotiating table with the knife between your teeth. But Altaïr has to be accountable to its shareholders, so they try to build in certainties. For example, about how hard my contracts with Albert Heijn and Jumbo are. Well, they are not one hundred percent guaranteed. If tomorrow in Zaandam or Veghel they decide to take us off the shelf because they have a better or cheaper alternative, we could just lose a lot of distribution. But so I can't give any guarantees; that would even violate competition law. The only guarantee I could give is that as long as we remain successful with Albert Heijn and Jumbo, they will not throw us off the shelf. With that soft commitment, Altaïr had to make do. It's still business, you can't give one hundred percent certainty on all points, otherwise the deal will never happen.'
Altaïr can help you continue to grow internationally. What else was important to you in this sale?
'There were three criteria important to us in this deal from the beginning. One is, and I can beat around the bush for a very long time, the price. The second is how they want to deal with the brand in the future. Will they kill that within a year or will they put it on-hold in terms of marketing and just start looking at how to get as much money out of it as possible. I don't want that. The mission has to continue. And the third thing is the team. There are fifteen of us here. How is that handled, are they well taken care of. If you then also speak a bit of the same language, look at brands, sustainability and marketing in the same way, then you have come a long way.'
Speaking of price, Het Financieele Dagblad calculated that the Green Soap Company is worth some 25 million euros.
'Let's just say: it's a well-educated guess. In any case, it's more than I can ever make up; I'd like to stick with that.'
The whole process with Altaïr ended up taking six months, which is quite fast for such a transaction. How do you look back on it now?
'It was very intense and I found it more emotional than I expected.'
So where were those emotions: the fact that you are selling your own baby?
'No, not even that. I was mostly very proud. At some point you start putting together the information memorandum. After my adviser poured all the information into the pitch deck, I did think for a moment: holy shit, what a beautiful and successful business this is.'
You suddenly realized what you had put down in ten years?
'Yes. It came in for a while. I knew some things, but an adviser like that knows exactly how to present the data so that it gives a good picture of the business' success. When I read that, I was really proud of what we have achieved with the team in recent years.'
During National Acquisition Day in 2018, you told us that you had done the acquisition of Triangle Soap without an adviser. For this sales process, you did engage an adviser?
'True. The acquisition of Triangle Soap was more or less awarded to me by Unilever, which was in fact a fairly straightforward transaction. I knew all the figures myself and knew what I was getting into. But selling your own business is a different story, I did need an adviser for that.'
On what basis did you choose your adviser?
'First of all, I deliberately chose a small team, so one takeover consultant, one lawyer and me. I like short lines of communication and fast switching. The sales process was supervised from start to finish by Onno Groeneveld of Cofion Advisory. Onno has previously done many large international transactions for KPMG, he knows how things work. At the same time, it is a pleasure to work with him and he is always available when I need him. For example, if on a Saturday morning I thought: shit, shouldn't we do this, shouldn't we do that? Then I called him and he took all the time I needed to address my concerns.
The deal is that you will stay on as chief soap officer until June 2025 to ensure a smooth transfer. Aren't you having trouble letting go of the business?
'No, not at all. I come across a lot of people who say: you founded the business yourself, your name is on it, then it must be difficult to see someone else doing it later on? Well, no. It's been an incredibly beautiful eight-year ride. I've had a lot of fun with it, learned a lot from it, but it's come full circle, it's really finished now. Moreover, the deal includes an earn-out. A relatively small amount, but enough to do your best for another year.'
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