GoodLife Foods B.V. and its affiliates (‘GoodLife Foods’) is pleased to announce that an agreement was signed to acquire Audens Group Solutions S.L. (‘Audens’ or the ‘Company’), a leading manufacturer in the Iberian frozen food market. The combination will result in a highly complementary group producing and selling innovative frozen food snacks and meal components across Europe. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed and completion is subject to legal and regulatory approvals.

Headquartered in Granollers (Barcelona area), Spain, Audens offers a broad portfolio of branded and private label products focused mainly on frozen snacks/appetizers and ready-meals.

The Company specializes in the production and distribution of branded and private label products, serving a customer base active in the Retail and Foodservice channels, mainly in Iberia next to a growing international presence.

Audens employs over 800 employees and operates five state-of-the-art manufacturing plants in Spain and Portugal. The Company’s CEO David Sala Coll will become non-executive director at GoodLife Foods and will remain active as strategic advisor to Audens. Carles Bosch will be appointed as General Manager of Audens and will manage the daily business operations in Iberia.

This strategic move represents a significant milestone for GoodLife Foods, as it allows to further diversify its product offerings and tap into new geographical growth opportunities. The combination will result in a leading frozen savoury food group with a pan-European sales and production network offering high levels of innovation and service levels to its customers.

Dirk Van de Walle, CEO at GoodLife Foods, said: ‘We believe that by combining the resources of Audens and GoodLife, talents, and innovative spirit, we can create a powerhouse in the food sector that is primed for success. Together, we will leverage our collective strengths to better serve our customers, drive operational excellence, and fuel growth in both existing and emerging markets’.

David Sala Coll, at Audens, said: ‘We are delighted to join forces with GoodLife Foods and become part of a dynamic and forward-thinking organization. This transaction presents exciting opportunities for our employees, customers, suppliers and partners alike. Together, we will continue to deliver exceptional appetizer solutions while maintaining our unwavering commitment to quality and customer satisfaction’.

Frederik Jacobs, Partner at IK, said: ‘We are pleased to have helped bringing both companies together. Part of our investment strategy at GoodLife Foods is to accelerate internationalisation and expand our presence to faster growing frozen food categories. The combination of GoodLife Foods with Audens is a significant accelerator of our ambition to create a strong and structurally growing frozen food business across select savoury categories’.

Sweden’s leading CMS, Sitevision, begins its international expansion by acquiring Norwegian CustomPublish. The acquisition is a part of Sitevision’s growth strategy and expansion in the Nordic market. Both companies have over 20 years of experience in developing web and intranet solutions for businesses, municipalities, regions and authorities.

“The acquisition of CustomPublish is the first step in our establishment in Norway and is fully in line with our growth strategy. CustomPublish and Sitevision largely target the same audience, and we complement their existing offering with a platform and services that have had Sweden’s most satisfied CMS customers since 2009,” says Anders Korsvall, CEO of Sitevision.

Both companies’ existing customers will benefit from an even broader set of tools that make it easier to create, manage, and publish content on their website and intranet. The main focus will be on leveraging the extensive experience from the Swedish and Norwegian markets to develop even better solutions for current and future customers.

“We look forward to becoming a part of Sitevision with the goal of together becoming the Nordic region’s leading CMS. Sitevision and their ecosystem will add great value to our existing customers. In turn, they will be able to offer their users and visitors an even better digital experience,” says Anders Svegård, CEO of CustomPublish.

A part of Sitevision’s strategy is to work closely with partners to provide customers with solutions and features tailored to their specific needs. This strategy has been a crucial component of Sitevision’s growth over the years. Now, they are opening up for collaborations in the Norwegian market as well and have already signed agreements with several Norwegian partners.

For more information about Sitevision and their products, visit Sitevision’s website.

For further information, please contact:

Anders Korsvall
CEO, Sitevision AB
+46 76 112 00 48
anders.korsvall@sitevision.se

Anders Svegård
CEO, CustomPublish AS
+47 450 66 540
anders@custompublish.com

Bree/Voorhout, 15 May 2024 – Tent structures and modular infrastructure specialists Veldeman Group (“Veldeman” or “the Group”) from Bree are incorporating Maessen Tentsupply into the Group. This move strengthens Veldeman’s wider geographical representation, while safeguarding future growth for tent suppliers Maessen Tentsupply.

Second acquisition in a single year for Veldeman Group

Veldeman Group, which supplies bespoke solutions for both rental and sales, has built up a strong international reputation with more than 50 years of experience. From the largest demountable festival tent in Europe to the largest semi-permanent warehouse in South America, there really are no limits to what the Group can offer. Even so, the rental business is largely concentrated on the Western European market.

In 2023, IK Partners, a leading European private equity firm, invested in Veldeman Group. One of the objectives behind this partnership was to accelerate rental growth and continue building an international presence through a targeted M&A strategy. An initial acquisition soon followed, namely East Flanders tent rental company Tentmoment, which enabled Veldeman to consolidate its position on the East and West Flanders market. A second acquisition now follows less than a year later with Maessen Tentsupply, with the Group also seeking to strengthen its position in the Netherlands.

Established reputation on the Dutch market

“Maessen Tentsupply is an established name in tent supply on the Dutch market. Just like Veldeman, the company stands for quality, flexibility and customer focus. Supplying custom-made solutions is in the DNA of both our companies. The markets and target audience they focus on also match with Veldeman’s. We look forward to working together with Maessen Tentsupply, within the Veldeman Group, to continue consolidating our position in the Dutch market and to realizing challenging projects,” says Andy Moors, CEO of Veldeman Group.  

Maessen Tentsupply has been involved in the rental and sale of tent structures for public events, festivals, private parties and industrial solutions since 1998. With a young and enthusiastic team of 30 employees, the company certainly does not lack ambition. This move is designed to propel Maessen Tentsupply into becoming the most reliable and respected tent supplier in the Netherlands. As part of Veldeman Group, the company will become stronger professionally and accelerate its ambitious growth plans. The current management of Maessen Tentsupply remains in place and is, in turn, investing in the Veldeman Group.

Roel Nelis of Maessen Tentsupply says “The success of the merger between Maessen Tenten and Tentsupply in 2021 underlined for us the power of working together. Over recent years we have achieved significant growth and made the processes within our company even more professional. We are now ready for the next step and believe we can continue synergy and growth within the Veldeman Group over the coming years.” “We recently expanded our branch in Voorhout with additional storage capacity of 6,000 square metres. This means we can now supply our group’s extensive product range efficiently in the Dutch market. We are really excited about working with the team and our clients to propel our service provision and projects to a higher level,” adds Rogier Maessen of Maessen Tentsupply.

Press contacts

Andy Moors, CEO Veldeman Group
Tel: (+32) 89 46 92 33
andy.moors@veldemangroup.be

Roel Nelis, Maessen Tentsupply
Tel. (+31) 6 12181498
roel@maessen-ts.nl

Rogier Maessen, Maessen Tentsupply
Tel. (+31) 6 53922537
rogier@maessen-ts.nl

Questel, a global leader in intellectual property (IP) management and technology services, is proud to announce the acquisition of qatent, a tech company whose use of artificial intelligence (AI) has broken new ground in the IP sector. This acquisition will bring forth a new era of sophisticated, AI-enhanced tools and services that will elevate global IP portfolio management. Questel’s acquisition of qatent represents a key component of its strategy to integrate AI-driven solutions into software and services at a level never before seen in the IP industry. With its extensive generative AI expertise and proven applications, qatent aligns perfectly with Questel’s vision for elevated AI-driven IP solutions.

qatent emerged from the distinguished AI research center INRIA Paris and has since become a cornerstone of innovation in the use of AI for IP management thanks to the leadership of its diverse and international team. Founded by a French IP attorney and a leading German AI researcher, from the Université Paris-Saclay, a European scientific and technological excellence cluster, qatent is not only pioneering the application of AI technologies in patent search and drafting but has already achieved notable success in these areas.

Remarking on the acquisition, Charles Besson, CEO at Questel, said: “The significance of AI in our field necessitates an internalized approach which partnerships simply cannot offer. In addition to immediately impacting patent drafting and searching, AI will directly benefit several of our other products such as Equinox, our highly successful IPMS solution.” 

Echoing this sentiment, François Veltz, CEO at qatent, said: “qatent has always positioned the IP practitioners at the heart of its strategy, with the aim of augmenting them through machine capabilities.” “The unparalleled richness and structure of the Questel global patent, trademark and design databases is an incredible learning ground for our algorithms and will quickly give more depth to our calculations,” added Kim Gerdes, CTO at qatent.

Joining the Questel group enables qatent to overcome several previously insurmountable obstacles; in particular, the confidentiality of customer data according to the ISO 27001 standard for information security, cybersecurity, and privacy protection.

Questel’s integration of qatent’s capabilities not only enriches Questel’s AI Labs network across France, Germany, the USA, and Japan but also reaffirms its position as a tech leader in the IP services sector.

Renta Group Oy (“Renta Group” or “Renta”) has reached an agreement to acquire Näs Rondellen AB (“Rondellen” or “the Company”). Rondellen is a Swedish general rental company operating in the greater Gothenburg area. The Company also provides traffic safety solutions to its customers. The Company has four depots, more than 45 employees and annual revenues of more than SEK 130 million.

With the acquisition Renta further strengthens its position in the greater Gothenburg area. Rondellen complements Renta’s geographical presence and adds to Renta’s capabilities in the region within infrastructure customers and in traffic safety solutions. The Company has a solid profitability and enjoys a good reputation among its customers. As part of Renta, Rondellen will continue to serve its customers with the same high-quality services as before and further benefit from leveraging Renta’s full product range and from implementing Renta’s digital solutions.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in March 2024.

Kari Aulasmaa, CEO of Renta Group, said: “The acquisition of Rondellen marks a continuation of our strategic agenda to build nationwide rental networks in our core markets. Rondellen is an excellent fit to Renta thanks to its complementary presence around Gothenburg and its capabilities in traffic safety. With the acquisition Renta’s position in the region will be further strengthened. We are very pleased to join forces and look forward to working together with the professionals of Rondellen. “

Samuel Lundberg, CEO of Rondellen, said: “We are excited about becoming a part of Renta, a company that shares our ambition to grow and develop the business further. Joining forces with Renta will extend our product offering to site modules, tunnelling equipment and pumps, enabling us to serve our customers with a broader offering than before. In addition, our customers will benefit from the digital solutions that Renta has developed, such as Renta Easy. I am confident that Renta will provide a good home for our employees, and that we will together be able to accelerate growth in the region.”

Enquiries: ir@renta.com

Renta Group Oy (“Renta Group” or “Renta”) has reached an agreement to acquire Scaffolding Group
sp. z o.o. (“Scaffolding Group” or “the Company”). Scaffolding Group is a Polish scaffolding company
serving industrial customers in Southern Poland. On a project basis the Company also does work
outside Poland. The Company has more than 20 employees and annual revenues of approximately
PLN 16 million.

With the acquisition Renta makes an entry to the Polish industrial scaffolding market. Furthermore,
Renta strengthens its position in the industrial customer end-market. Scaffolding Group is a growing
company with strong profitability and a skilled staff. Renta’s objective, together with the
management of Scaffolding Group, is to continue to scale the operations geographically and to
further expand the customer base of the Company.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by February 2024.

Kari Aulasmaa, CEO of Renta Group, said: “We are excited to welcome Scaffolding Group to be part of Renta. The acquisition complements our offering and provides us improved access to industrial customers. I’m convinced that we will be able to further expand Scaffolding Group’s business together with the experienced management team of the Company. We warmly welcome the professionals of Scaffolding Group to join Renta.”

Michał Dzieciaszek, Co-founder of Scaffolding Group, said: “We are very happy to partner with Renta, a company sharing our ambition for continued development of the business. With the support of Renta, a larger company with a nationwide presence and advanced digital solutions, we will have a good foundation for continued growth and expansion of the business. We look forward to working with the Renta team in Poland and with Renta’s scaffolding professionals across the Renta Group.”