Rotom Europe, a leading Pan-European provider of logistic load carriers for transport and storage, has attracted growth capital from its new shareholder Waterland.

Rotom Europe, headquartered in Son (Eindhoven, the Netherlands), has successfully developed into a Pan-European full service provider in the field of bespoke load carriers, with an annual turnover of more than € 140 million. Nowadays, Rotom is operationally active in 10 European countries, with 26 locations throughout Europe and has 500 employees. The group is developing, producing, trading, collecting, renting out, repairing and maintaining a broad range of logistics load carriers including for example wooden pallets, metal roll containers, mobile racks, and plastic pallets and bins for a wide range of customers.

After 30 years of successful expansion, the current board members and shareholders have the ambition to accelerate the growth of Rotom Europe, by developing the company into the leading European player in the field of bespoke load carriers and related services. In order to achieve this ambition, additional strategic support and capital are required to pursue add-on acquisitions and strengthen the existing companies in the group. Therefore, after a careful evaluation of the strategic options, Rotom Europe has selected the Pan-European investment company Waterland as its intended financial and strategic partner for the future. Arjan Kuiper, CEO of Rotom Europe, says “it’s our aim to support our customers to become more sustainable with returnable load carriers and packaging recovery solutions on a Pan-European level, for which we have been able to attract the right strategic partner”.

The company plans to acquire several companies providing load carriers and related services in the next few years to increase the density of the European network in existing countries including the Benelux, Germany, Spain, France and the UK and to enter new European countries such as the Nordics, Italy and Eastern Europe. On top of the planned network expansion, Rotom intends to extend its service activities which will enable the group to expand its sustainable solutions offering for customers such as packaging recovery, pooling and rental of returnable load carriers and repair and maintenance to extend product lifetime.

Arjan Kuiper continues: “with Waterland, we have found the right future business partner to realize our ambition to become the European market leader in sustainable bespoke load carriers and solutions. Rotom has deep knowledge of the European market for load carriers, whilst Waterland has a huge experience in facilitating the buy & build strategy, can provide ample financial resources and is able to provide solid strategic support, hence a perfect combination”. The founding and current shareholders of Rotom Europe remain on board as co-shareholders together with Waterland. The transaction is still subject to merger clearance in the Netherlands and Poland.