Omnes Capital's exits

After a fact-finding mission to learn the ins and outs of running a small business of his own, he searched high and low for projects before eventually plumping for SIMP, a SME with well-known expertise in the micro-injection of plastic and rubber components and world leader in thermoplastic mascara brushes. What made you choose this business? Because it is unusual. Though small, with just 25 employees, it has a large sales base (€8.8 million in 2012) and tremendous potential.

“Growing an already well-run business was a highly motivating challenge,” says Alain Blondel, who has drawn on the existing teams in place and in particular on Eric de Bardonnèche, the current sales director, who has been appointed as director of business development. Alain Blondel joined forces with Omnes Capital to buy the company from Manuel Viegas, SIMP’s former manager. And he shares the same long-term vision for the business as his financial partner. The goal is to grow the Innovation unit through a focus on mascara and also to expand into new high value-added product niches.

He will not overlook expanding SIMP in international markets, especially emerging markets such as China and Brazil. “By pooling our energy and capitalising on our individual strengths, we are going to design new products, new manufacturing processes and win new customers. And we are going to stay a small and friendly firm,” says the business owner. Look out for SIMP to dazzle us in the future.

Our goal was to find a partner able to help us grow externally and organically in the international market with respect to our existing business lines while also rounding out our service offer. In Omnes Capital, we found an investor who, even before talking about money, worked proactively to understand our business lines, market, needs, and vision. The Omnes team presented us with the best possible action plan to reach our goals.

The outcome has been extremely positive. Our main contact person at Omnes was unfailingly enthusiastic, willing, and available. We spoke with each other on a regular basis outside of supervisory board meetings with complete transparency and a great deal of mutual trust. This is also what made us more agile and effective in our decision-making process. We were able to establish a truly personal relationship, which, in my opinion, was the key to our partnership’s success.

The sale is happening at the right time. We have arrived at the end of our time with Omnes, but we will be pursuing our external growth strategy with other partners. We are currently finalising large-scale acquisitions in North America, Spain, and Germany.