Entrepreneur Mark Bos pulled his father's business from the brink, built it into multiple branches and a web shop, and sold MotorKledingCenter via a pre-exit. "After two years, I was done with it.
Good example follows. Mark Bos hung up his police hat and - like his father - decided to go into business. He started a wholesale business in motorcycle helmets and jeans. With MotorKledingCenter, his father's business, as his biggest customer, he was able to make a good start.
This was short-lived. The financial crisis came and MotorKledingCenter was under Special Management at the bank as of 2011. At that point, Mark decided to come to the aid of his father. After a management buy-in, he flew to the United States for inspiration and came back with a rescue plan: online marketing was to save the motorcycle clothing store.
'I ran out of cash, so I started building a webshop myself,' Bos said. 'Together with an intern, I recorded videos of all the items for social media. That visibility caught on. Suddenly customers were coming through the door.'
Seeking lender
Despite quickly returning black figures, financing ambitions proved increasingly challenging, so father and son Bos went looking for an investor. But not before Bos had achieved tremendous growth. His omnichannel formula was so successful that they were taken out of Special Management in 2014 and opened several branches over the following years.
Bos: "The webshop was often where the first introduction to our products took place, but our revenue - about 75 percent - came from our physical stores, which had enormous appeal to motorcyclists from the region. They wanted to try on the motorcycle clothing, feel it and hear from an experienced salesperson how safe the clothing is.'
By 2018, they had six branches and were the market leader in the Benelux with about 100 employees and revenue of about 15 million euros at the time. From that point on, the bank did not want to invest in the business. The solvency ratio was way off. Father and son had accumulated too much debt compared to their equity. The bank advised to first strengthen and save or to look for money in another way to continue growing. Bos opted for the latter. 'If things start to stagnate and I have to sit back and wait, I won't come into my own.'
Pre-exit
Initially, the plan was to dispose of some of the shares. With support from acquisition firm Marktlink, several discussions with both private equity and strategic parties followed. Colleagues came up with the highest valuations. A condition was that father and son had to sell 100 percent of the business. 'We chose the middle way, a pre-exit,' Bos explains. 'Because you can only sell your business well once.'
The years following the partial takeover by motorcycle clothing manufacturer Richa Group of Belgium included a rebranding to MKC Moto and several acquisitions. Very interesting for the Belgians, because they could distribute their own brand through all those stores. And for Bos himself, not entirely unfortunate either. Yet after two years, he was done with it. 'I became alienated from the organization. It was all no longer going the way I wanted.'
Icebreaker
Two years after the pre-exit, which took place in 2020, Bos quit his day-to-day operations but remained a shareholder. He took a trip around the world with his young family, the perfect time to reflect and think about his next adventure. Through-via he came into contact with Findyour Equity Partners, a private equity club that was looking for an entrepreneur to make a number of acquisitions together in the signing sector.
'I hesitated, because my experience is in B2C,' Bos says. 'Besides, signing and advertising is really a different business. Still, I saw it as an opportunity. Collaborating with a private equity party means scaling up much faster and making bigger acquisitions than on your own. I would learn a lot from it.'
Together, they founded the Signpres Group. A strategic choice, because the newly minted businesspartners partners expect to have a lot of work in this industry in the coming years. 'The work-from-home trend is here to stay. To keep the connection with employees, businesses are increasingly investing in making the office environment as attractive as possible. That is what we are focusing on.'
While Bos was the seller with MKC Moto, now he is actually the buyer of businesses. 'Very nice to be on the other side of the table now. My story from MKC Moto always breaks the ice with the selling parties, because I know exactly how they feel. The sales process is a game, I realize that all the more now. I'm much more rational about it.'
