Livingstone advises Inspecs Group plc on the acquisition of Ego Eyewear and BoDe Design

Livingstone Partners acted as exclusive corporate finance advisor to Inspecs Group plc (“Inspecs”) on the acquisition of BoDe Design Vertriebs GmbH & Co KG (“BoDe”) from their respective owner manager.

BoDe is a distributor of optical and sunglasses frames principally to the German market. It is highly complementary to Inspecs’ existing German affiliate Eschenbach, which was acquired in 2020 also with Livingstone acting as corporate finance advisor to Inspecs. BoDe will thus allow Inspecs to further build its distribution reach in Germany among the country’s leading eyewear chains as well as independent opticians.

Inspecs was founded in the UK in 1988 by Robin Totterman and is a multinational designer, manufacturer and distributor of spectacle frames and lenses. The group produces a wide range of optical sunglasses and safety frames on branded and OEM basis. Inspecs is thus one of the few suppliers able to offer its customers (which include international optician and retail chains as well as distributors and independent opticians) such a one-stop solution. The company’s distribution network spans 80 countries, includes about 30,000 sales outlets, and has subsidiaries in the UK, Portugal, Scandinavia, the US and China, as well as production facilities in Vietnam, China, the UK and Italy.

“We are very pleased with the continuing support from Livingstone helping us to execute our M&A strategy at a fast pace” says Chris Kay, CFO of Inspecs Plc. “Due to Livingstone’s comprehensive buyside M&A support as well as their industry expertise we were able to execute two transactions in two different jurisdictions in parallel in a highly expedite manner.”

Michael Westhoven, Partner at Livingstone Düsseldorf, comments: “We are very pleased to be able to further support Inspecs in its continuing growth through M&A and we feel very privileged to be part of this success story”.