Céréa Capital II has acquired, from Azulis Capital, Store Novation (with its two main subsidiaries Sitour and Caractères), a French leader in point-of-sale advertising solutions (signage, price labelling, merchandising, and in-store theatre material), mainly for large-scale food retailers.
With sales of nearly EUR40 million and roughly 150 employees, Store Novation offers a wide range of over 3 500 products to more than 7 500 clients (distributers and advertisers). Specialised to accompany large food business brands and their distributors, the group is active in France and exports to more than 50 countries.
Store Novation has seen strong organic growth since the management was strengthened in 2013 with the arrival of Eve Stockel as Managing Director. Having successfully and strategically repositioned the group these past four years, she is appointed CEO and will lead a new phase in its development.
Antoine Peyronnet, Managing Director with Céréa Partenaire, says: “Store Novation is a French leader in a market showing strong growth perspectives and benefits from a diversified client portfolio and experienced management team. The group is an ideal platform to consolidate a still very fragmented European point-of-sale advertising market.”
Stockel adds: “We are delighted to begin this partnership with Céréa Partenaire, which will enable us to consolidate our ‘core market’ positions as well as to seize opportunities for external growth and internationalisation.”
Yann Collignon, Partner with Azulis Capital, says: “We are proud to have supported the development and strategic repositioning of Store Novation since 2011. Today the group is ideally positioned to continue its growth trajectory.”
