Divested Companies
Varier
Varier makes ergonomic chairs with beautiful design. This is Credo's very first investment, and began as a quick and successful turnaround after years of financial losses as a division of the former Stokke group. Lately the company has transformed from a broad design portfolio to a focused player in a growing global niche: healthy sitting.
Contact person: Wilhelm Mohn
Investment year: 2006
Revenues 2022: NOK 88 million
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Konstel
Konstel is an electrical installation and service supplier group in Eastern Norway. The group was created by combining 10 individual installation firms and by establishing a top tier purchasing cooperation in the Norwegian market. Together Credo Partners and the founders have set out to build a fast-growing multi-local electrical installation group, through a buy and build strategy, focusing on acquiring local market leaders. The group's subsidiaries operate independently, meaning that decisions about the companies’ operations are taken close to the market. Konstel combines the flexibility, personality and efficiency of a small company with the resources, networks and professionalism of a large business.
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Contact person: Gudmund Killi
Ownership period: 2019-2022
Revenues 2022: NOK 1.3 billion
SYSCO
Sysco is a leading IT service provider, focused on the Nordic energy utility space. Together with the founders, Credo transformed the company from a regional IT consultancy into a next generation industrial software and tech services companies within renewable energy. Through Credo’s ownership, Sysco (i) refocused its strategy to become a winning IT service provider for energy utilities, (ii) established a winning formulae in the combination of industry expertise, expertise in legacy IT stacks that were commonplace in the energy sector, and modern cloud technology, (iii) reengineered the business model to contain more recurring revenues, (iv) completely rebranded the company, and (v) built a new management team to execute the game plan. Operating profit more than doubled in the ownership period, and the company was sold to Norvestor-owned Cegal in 2021, generating 4.6x gross returns for investors. Credo is today a minority shareholder in the merged Cegal-Sysco.
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Contact person: Gudmund Killi
Ownership period: 2016 - 2021
2020 revenues: NOK 490 million
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Globus Wine
Globus Wine is an important partner for Danish retail in the wine category, and a leading wine company in Northern Europe. The company provides whole wine concepts, including sourcing, blending, filling, distribution and branding. During the course of Credo’s ownership, Globus Wine was transformed into a modern FMCG company resulting in capturing 22% market share of branded wines in Danish retail (from 2% in 2016), tripling of production capacity in the most modern wine making facility in Northern Europe - a greenfield plant covering 18.000 square meters; in total achieving a uniquely competitive market and cost position in the Northern European market for wine. In July 2022, Globus Wine was sold to Anora as a spearhead platform for wines into non-monopoly markets in Europe. Operating profit was more than doubled, and the transaction represented a value creation of 4x gross returns to Credo’s investors.
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Contact person: Wilhelm Mohn
Ownership period: 2016 - 2022
2021 revenues: DKK 638 million
Frisk Utvikling
Credo created Frisk Utvikling together with the founders by merging four suppliers of work and health related services. The combined business provides a portfolio of services to help unemployed people back to work, such as labor market measures, organizational consulting, outplacement, as well as health services and rehabilitation. Through Credo’s ownership, Frisk Utvikling became the leading Norwegian provider of public unemployment services, and added a rapidly expanding offering to the private sector to balance out the revenue mix. Integrating and professionalizing management, business processes, the digital platform and M&A capabilities created substantial value for both investors and jobseekers. Operating profit more than doubled during the ownership period, and the company was sold to the Danish health- and rescue group Falck in 2021, generating 4x gross returns for Credo’s investors.
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Contact person: Pål Brynsrud
Ownership period: 2018-2021
2020 revenues: NOK 608 million
Geia Food
Geia Food is an independent provider of food concepts and products to Nordic grocery retail. Geia offers its customers products that differentiate them from competitors and traditional brands, and offers its 200+ global food producing suppliers an effective sales channel to all the major grocery retailers in the Nordics. Credo’s task as owners was to transform what was a Danish trading company, into a scalable category partner for Nordic footd retail. The strategic position was focused on selected product categories where Geia could achieve category leadership, the market positions in Norway and Sweden were built from scratch, and the organizational model was adjusted to scale across multiple countries. This transformation also enabled Geia to become highly effective at M&A-driven growth. Operating profit doubled in the ownership period, and the company was sold to Triton Partners in 2021, generating 4x gross returns for investors.
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Contact person: Gudmund Killi
Ownership period: 2017-2021
2020 revenues: DKK 2 billion
Optimar
Optimar is a leading supplier of fish handling and processing equipment to the fishery and aquaculture industries. The company operates in the global market, and has subsidiaries in Spain, the US and Romainia, in addition to three locations in Norway. Together with the founders, Credo refocused the company to enable global leadership in onboard fish processing. Our key contributions were: (i) Strategi focus, i.e. going from many industries to fishery as the only one, adding aquaculture within fishery, and accelerating product development within aquaculture, (ii) increasing scalability of the business model through merging three companies to one, better project execution, and wider distribution power, and (iii) building an organization for the future with new top management and key hires in both project management and product development. Operating profit almost tripled in the ownership period, and the company was sold to the German industrial holding company Haniel in 2017, generating 6x gross returns for investors.
Contact person: Pål Brynsrud
Ownership period: 2012 - 2017
2017 revenues: NOK 1 billion
Labflex
Labflex is a supplier of customized laboratory furnishing solutions to pharma, industrial and university clients globally. Credo’s investment case was to build on the company’s early success with delivering large series of laboratory solutions to international pharma. This became a failed investment for Credo, due to a combination of project postponements, operational complexity and management underperformance. Credo quickly established a turnaround-plan, but in the end decided not to inject the necessary additional capital, and the company was returned to the founders and the bank early 2017.
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Contact person: Pål Brynsrud
Ownership period: 2015 - 2016
2016 revenues: DKK 250 million