Pachem - family owned SME with focus on growth

Pachem, an Austrian based packaging company, sought the expertise, reliability and experience of Alpine Equity to expand its operations into the United Kingdom. Taking a minority share, Alpine supported Pachem to realize its ambition, whilst the founders maintained day-to-day control of the organization. Within two years, turnover and headcount doubled. Subsequently, the organization was sold to a global partner, providing a worldwide customer base for sustained growth in new markets, globally.

Facts & Figures

Facts		Founded as a start-up in 1992 Strategic Aim: Strong, sustainable growth and a global presence.

Situational analysis		Alpine Equity Investment during 2000 Pachem’s turnover was 17 million Euros. The business employed 90 people.

Pachems need		The leadership team realized their low equity ratio was central to preventing the organisations global ambition. Alpine Equity was appointed to provide liquidity for expansion plus additional mezzanine capital.

Benefit to the company		Pachems leadership team had the liquidity to establish a production facility in the UK Furthermore, the cash and advice allowed the development of new production methods and strengthening of the R&D function.

Result		As a result, Pachem delivered rapid growth in turnover as illustrated by €17million in 2000 which by 2002 grew to €30 million. Similarly, headcount grew from a baseline of 90 people in 2000 to a total of 150 people in 2002.

Exit		Goals of the venture defined with Alpine Equity were reached by the Pachem team in 2002. A Trade Sale to a listed Canadian group with a turnover of 1 billion Euros, 7000 employees and 33 production sites worldwide was brought to a successful conclusion. The new strategic partner provided Pachem the experience and worldwide reach, to further develop Pachems global expansion plans.