Eden Springs Completes Acquisition of Nestlé Waters Direct Businesses in Germany, Portugal and The Netherlands
Eden Springs, a leading European provider of office water and coffee solutions, has completed the first step in the acquisition of three of the five Nestlé Waters Direct (NWD) water cooler businesses from Nestlé Waters. The overall acquisition of the five NWD businesses was agreed with Nestlé Waters in early September. The three NWD businesses in Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands have transferred to Eden Springs, marking the first stage in bringing these two organizations together as one team and providing a springboard for future growth.
The deal provides a key opportunity for Eden Springs’ ongoing expansion into the provision of water and coffee service solutions across Europe.
Post-acquisition, Eden’s installed water and coffee client base will reach approximately 1 million. Legacy NWD customers will now enjoy the added bonus of selecting from a broad range of branded workplace coffee solutions, including Lavazza, Mars, Dowe Egberts, Gimoka and Eden’s own label, Edenissimo.
The deal reflects Eden Springs’ confidence in the long-term potential of the European workplace beverages sector. Raanan Zilberman, CEO of Eden Springs, comments: “We are particularly excited to enter Germany, Europe’s largest economy, and a country that offers strong prospects in both water and coffee.”
Germany saw the greatest volume growth in EU workplace water services, up 6% in 2013, and has one of the highest office coffee consumption levels in Europe, of more than two cups per day.
He concluded: “This deal demonstrates our serious intention to continue long-term development and expansion in the resilient and profitable workplace drinks sector. The new scale for Eden provided by the acquisition will allow us to increase investment in operational and service excellence, and is an important milestone in realizing our vision to be every European workplace’s favorite water and coffee service provider.”
Eden expects to close the acquisition of the remaining two NWD businesses in Poland and Russia in 2015, subject to customary regulatory and other approvals. When finalised, the total deal is expected to increase Eden’s annual turnover to approximately €370 million.The acquisition has been and will be financed through a combination of equity and debt.
