Belgium's Gimv puts 15 million euros into Onedirect
This is the fourth France-based management buyout that Gimv has completed. The 2 co-founders, Hervé Lafont and Emmanuel Stern, will naturally continue to be shareholders in the company they founded back in 1999. The primary change in the management team will be the addition of Jean-Louis Coustenoble, the former Chief Executive of Kalamazoo Spain as well as 2 French-based Staples subsidiaries, Bernard and JPG.
The company currently covers several European markets, including Portugal, Spain, Italy and more recently Germany – as of last year. The 75 person team (40 of which are dedicated to sales) also has 2 branches in Milan and Barcelona. With roughly 350,000 unique visitors per month, the site offers over 1,800 products – including a number of professional telephone devices and equipment (conference call devices, wireless devices, bluetooth kits,…) from well-known brands, like Panasonic, Philips, Polycom, Alcatel, etc. The company brought in over 24 million euros in revenue last year.