Livingstone advises Fresks and Gärdin & Persson in the sale to Litorina

Livingstone is pleased to announce the sale of Fresks and Gärdin & Persson (“Fresks”) to Litorina. Livingstone acted as the sole financial advisor to the owners of Fresks in the transaction in which Litorina IV acquires a majority of the shares in the company. Fresks is a leading Swedish building materials chain in Northern Sweden, focused towards professional customers, with revenues of SEK 875 million. The Oscarson Family and the CEO Leif Lindholm, previous owners of Fresks, retain a significant ownership together with Litorina and the management.

Fresks has shown solid growth and increased profitability and has today revenues of more than SEK 875 million through 12 stores. Fresks sells high quality building materials to primarily small and mid-sized professionals. The company also offers product ordering and sales online, as well as installation services. Fresks is today the largest member of the purchasing organization Byggtrygg, with the brand name XL BYGG.

“We have realized a fantastic growth journey during the last five years increasing from five to twelve outlets, and more than doubling revenues with improved profitability and have found a winning concept” says Pehr Oscarson, chairman of Fresks and part-owner in Oscarson Invest. “With this platform it feels exciting bringing along Litorina as a new partner to facilitate an even more active expansion through acquisitions in a fragmented building material market.”

“Fresks strong corporate culture with its customer focus and continuous improvement together with the management’s proven ability to complete and integrate acquisitions creates an excellent platform for further development and continued growth” says Lars Verneholt, Partner at Litorina Capital Advisors, advisor to Litorina IV. “Fresks is an exciting investment and we look forward to support its management in growing the business during the coming years.”

”A fragmented market with a large potential for consolidation combined with Fresks’ strong market position and dedicated management meant significant interest for the company. With Litorina as a new majority shareholder, Fresks has a great opportunity to expand into a leading Swedish building materials chain for professional customers”comments Thomas Karlsson, Partner at Livingstone.