Silverfleet Capital

Schneider

The company

Schneider is a leading German B2C (Business-to-Consumer) and B2B (Business-to-Business) distribution company with a focus on Germany, Austria and Switzerland (the DACH region). The business, which has turnover in excess of €250 million, has recently started to transform itself from a catalogue driven business into an online retailer, with an increasing proportion of sales occurring over the internet.

The B2C brands, Impressionen and Conley’s, were launched in 1995 and 1996 respectively, and are lifestyle and fashion orientated. Their ability to share the infrastructure of the rest of the Schneider group has allowed both brands to develop rapidly. The B2C parts of the business retail brands such as Boss and Tommy Hilfiger alongside Schneider’s own in-house labels. More recently the company has launched new brands such as Discovery and Gingar, which are aimed at younger customer groups.

The traditional B2B business provides promotional products (e.g. pens, coffee mugs, bags) alongside other items, which are mainly sold via catalogues, distributed to around two million small and medium sized businesses across Germany.

Investment rationale

Given Schneider’s strong market position and the significant customer base of the core B2C brands in the DACH region, we believe there is an opportunity to significantly increase the online sales within this business through increased investment in all aspects of e-commerce.

The B2C business produces an attractive product range as well as generating good margins, and is supported by the strong cash generation of the B2B business. The highly efficient logistics operations in Wedel, which are shared by both the B2C and B2B businesses, give Schneider very competitive operational costs in its sector.

Value creation

Since the buyout in October 2010 we have been working with management to augment the management team and have to date appointed a new CFO and a new non-executive director, Peter Higgins. Peter is currently chairman of Joe Browns, Crew Clothing Company and is a non-executive director of Charles Tyrwhitt; he was also previously chairman of Cath Kidston.