Avedon Capital Partners (Avedon) has teamed up with the founders of Maxident, Crossmill, Hamm Dental (Hamm) and B u T Dentaltechnik (BuT), to found the DELABO Group.
The combination of these three independent German dental laboratories with complementary technical and operational capabilities will form the nucleus for a buy & build strategy to drive consolidation in the fragmented German dental laboratories market. The transaction successfully closed on 16 September, 2019. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price or further details of the transaction.
The newly founded DELABO Group will offer a comprehensive portfolio of domestically produced dental prosthetics across all relevant price/quality combinations. This includes high volume products manufactured via automated processes and finished with traditional crafts-based manufacturing, as well as high-end and medically advanced, manually produced prosthetics. Both supported by oral implantology planning and supportive diagnostic services. With about 115 employees across 4 locations the combination is already from the start one of the largest dental lab groups in Germany. Investments into technology and the harmonisation of production process, a shared organisational set-up as well as in strategic sales and marketing initiatives are planned.
The selling shareholders have been reinvesting a meaningful portion of their respective sales proceeds into DELABO Group. All will contribute their operational expertise actively within the group going forward. This shows the commitment to the partnership amongst existing and future dental laboratories under the DELABO Group umbrella. The management of the Holding comprises of two senior and experienced buy & build managers. Thomas Dold (CEO) and Markus Dreihues (CFO) have worked on multiple previous assignments for private equity that focused on industry consolidation in partnership with entrepreneurs.
Alexis Weege, Investment Director at Avedon, says: “The foundation of DELABO Group is a compelling investment opportunity within a lesser regulated niche of the stable and non-cyclical dental healthcare market. Currently, more than 8,000 commercial dental labs operate in the German dental prosthetics market, most of which are owner-managed, regionally manifested. Especially the mid-to-small sized are struggling with changing market-requirements, which Avedon in partnership with lab owners is addressing via the newly founded DELABO Group.”
Thomas Dold, CEO DELABO Group, says: “The most noticeable challenges for individual owner-managed dental labs are the transition from crafts-based to automation-based production, increased demand for value prosthetics, competition from import labs, the shortage of skilled employees, and ultimately missing succession solutions. The Group, as a dental lab platform, will be able to offer current owner-managed labs appealing solutions to these changes. By becoming part of the commercially, technologically and financially advanced DELABO Group, a unique opportunity for lab owners to participate in the envisaged growth trajectory is available.”
