Tengelmann Group has a acquired a 49.9% stake in Baby-Markt.de, the Dortmund-based baby products e-tailer. The financial details are undisclosed and the deal, in which Parklane Capital advised, is subject to regulatory approval.
Tengelmann has recently stepped up its investment activity with interests in fashion retailers brands4friends and Zalando through its subsidiary Tengelmann E-Commerce-Beteiligungs, which is focusing on e-commerce, social commerce as well as Internet and Web 2.0 technologies.
“Baby-Markt.de is one of the leading online retailers and therefore fits perfectly with our e-commerce strategy. I am particularly pleased that Spiel & Baby GmbH is also an owner-managed business, like Tengelmann,” explained Karl-Erivan W. Haub, managing partner of the Tengelmann Group.
Albert Lütgenau, managing partner of Baby-Markt.de adds: “We have found a strong partner in Tengelmann, who will enable us to continue to achieve our ambitious growth targets, in particular in the development of our market position in Germany and the expansion in further European countries.”
Baby-Markt.de was founded in 2003 and employs 90 staff who dispatch up to 4,000 consignments of baby and toddler items daily. According to the press release: “The range comprises approx. 12,000 in-stock items from renowned manufacturers, offered at low prices.” Turnover was over €30 million in 2009.
The Tengelmann Group is an international trading group whose subsidiaries include OBI, KiK, Kaiser’s Tengelmann, Plus and A & P. The family business was founded in 1867 in Mülheim an der Ruhr and is now managed by the 5th successive generation. With 4,357 branches and 83,655 employees in 14 countries, the Group generated sales totaling EUR 12.36 billion in fiscal 2008.