On July 12, 2022, Bluegem Capital Partners acquired Nutrimuscle (the “Company”), the leading French digital D2C community-driven brand in sustainable active nutrition, from Groupe Finoli and the management team.
Théo-Ange Copolata, the current CEO and shareholder of the company will reinvest into the business and remain as CEO to lead its expansion in the coming years.
Headquartered in Paris with manufacturing operations in Belgium, Nutrimuscle is a pioneer and digitally native D2C brand in the fast-growing sport and health supplement markets. Founded in 1993 as an answer to a lack of good quality sport supplements in Europe, Nutrimuscle has a differentiated and superior value proposition based on natural ingredients, organic & clean formulas and transparent sourcing. The Company benefits from a large and fast-growing community of brand lovers with long history of unparalleled loyalty, engagement and repeat purchase behaviour.
The Company has best-in class digital marketing, e-commerce and community-management capabilities surpassing industry standards. Its end-to-end vertically integrated business model allows full traceability and control over the entire value chain. Nutrimuscle has strong R&D capabilities in new product development and formulation leveraging on a highly skilled team and long-term relationships with leading suppliers. The Company has a proprietary portfolio of over 100 products and 850 SKUs.
Nutrimuscle is highly focused on ESG practices as an “Entreprise à Mission” and on its path to become certified B-Corp by 2023.
Groupe Finoli acquired, alongside Théo-Ange Copolata, Nutrimuscle in 2018 from the Company’s founder and successfully transformed the business to position it as a fast growing brand while maintaining its core values. Since 2018, Nutrimuscle generated impressive organic growth track record with best-in class profitability. Today the group has 62 employees distributed over France (Paris) and Belgium (Aubange).
Théo-Ange Copolata, Shareholder and CEO of Nutrimuscle said:
“I am thrilled to pursue the phenomenous brand expansion we had since 2018 thanks to the brilliant support of Groupe Finoli and look forward to achieve a great implantation in Europe alongside Bluegem support and expertise”
Mathieu Develay, Partner of Bluegem, commented:
“We are very excited to partner with Nutrimuscle and have been impressed by Nutrimuscle’s commitment to clean-ingredient, traceable products with ESG factors at the core of the company’s values. We look forward to helping Nutrimuscle educate the public on nutrition and wellness, and expand its offerings beyond Nutrimuscle’s native French market.”
Emilio Di Spiezio Sardo, Founding Partner of Bluegem commented:
“With an ever increasing focus on health and nutrition we believe Nutrimuscle is a fantastic addition to the Bluegem III portfolio, which includes a diverse range of resilient consumer brands underpinned by megatrend tailwinds.”
Pierre Juhen and Grégory Declercq, co-CEOs of Groupe Finoli added:
“We are delighted to have worked alongside Théo and his team to achieve the impressive growth journey of Nutrimuscle since 2018, and we believe the brand and the team are now ideally positioned to further develop their footprint in France and accelerate their internationalization with the support of a skilled shareholder”
On the buyside, Oaklins acted as M&A advisor, Alvarez & Marsal advised on finance DD, Arsene Taxand advised on tax DD and Agilys Avocats acted as Bluegem’s legal advisor. Marlborough Partners acted as financing and debt advisor, with Céréa and Indigo providing debt financing, and debt and equity financing respectively.
J.P. Morgan acted as exclusive sell-side financial advisor to Groupe Finoli. BCG carried out the vendor commercial DD while KPMG performed the vendor financial / IT / legal and tax DD. McDermott Will & Emery AARPI and Jeausserand-Audouard acted respectively as legal advisors for the shareholders and the management team.
BLUEGEM CAPITAL PARTNERS
Bluegem is a specialist consumer-focused private equity firm that partners with management teams and founders to accelerate growth of strong consumer brands. With a track record of investing across Europe through different economic cycles, industry and market conditions, Bluegem have refined their investment strategy to focus on resilient consumer segments benefiting from secular megatrends, including Beauty and Personal Care; Household Care; Food and Beverage; Baby Care; Pet Care; Consumer Health and Nutrition; and Hobby and Craft. More information about Bluegem can be found at www.bluegemcp.com.
GROUPE FINOLI
Groupe Finoli is a French industrial conglomerate founded in 2008, mainly active in the fields of beauty, wellbeing and healthcare. Through its subsidiaries and activity, the Finoli Group has been pursuing a vision of long-term development for over 10 years and promoting strong values: Excellence, Innovation, Ethics and Merit. The Finoli Group is a private, independent company controlled and managed by its founders.
Groupe Finoli is growing, with approximately 150 staff, a consolidated turnover of about 50 million euros and equity capital of over 200 million euros. Positioned in particularly buoyant and resilient markets, the Finoli Group foresees its development continuing rapidly, both organically and through external growth.
