Funds advised by Bregal Unternehmer Kapital (“BU”) have entered into an agreement to sell their majority stake in the MEDIA Central Group (“MEDIA Central”), European market leader in drive-to-store marketing, to Flipp Operations Inc. (“Flipp “), a Canadian technology company and leader in digital merchandising, signed. Flipp is backed by its majority owner Truelink Capital, an American private equity company. The merger will create the global market leader for digital drive-to-store marketing, helping retailers and brand manufacturers increase customer demand. The aim of the partnership is to combine the market-leading positions in Europe and North America as well as the expertise of the two companies. The emerging group operates in 27 global markets and serves thousands of blue-chip retailers and brand manufacturers. It reaches over 400 million households worldwide.
Transformation into the leading provider of drive-to-store marketing solutions in Europe
Since BU joined as a shareholder in 2019, MEDIA Central, together with founder Stefan Hamacher and the management team, has been developed from a local provider for the distribution of paper brochures in the German market into an internationally operating, digitally oriented market leader for drive-to-store marketing solutions. With its leading traditional and digital businesses, MEDIA Central today provides data-driven 360° solutions for major retailers and brand manufacturers in Europe, Australia and Latin America. Through targeted targeting, consumers are motivated to visit and shop in brick-and-mortar stores.
The management team’s many years of industry expertise and excellent leadership skills contributed significantly to MEDIA Central’s impressive growth. The group’s digital orientation was continuously further developed inorganically through the acquisitions of the Offerista Group (2021), Yagora (2022) and ShopFully (2023). The succession of founders at MEDIA Central was successfully implemented by Stefan Hamacher gradually withdrawing from operational business and moving to an advisory board role in 2022. In this context, Ingo Wienand took over the management of MEDIA Central as CEO and, after the digital expansion, continues to run the business as CEO Classic together with Stefano Portu, CEO Digital. The two managers will continue to carry out key management tasks in the new group after the merger with Flipp.
Merger with Flipp to become global market leader in drive-to-store marketing
The merger of MEDIA Central and Flipp combines the leading market position and expertise of both companies and will create unprecedented value for customers and households. Flipp helps major retailers and brands in the US and Canada improve their digital merchandising by creating and distributing local promotions to millions of households. Like MEDIA Central, Flipp has also been a leader in the transformation from purely analogue to digital and hybrid offer communication for over a decade. The combination of both platforms creates an innovative digital merchandising network and database that helps retailers and brands connect with consumers worldwide. By integrating their networks, the two companies will not only serve complementary audiences and expand their global reach, but also accelerate innovation and increase value for their customers on a global scale.
Stefan Hamacherfounder of MEDIA Central, says: “Through the partnership with BU in 2019 and the significant investments in the following years, together we were able to first make MEDIA Central a European leader and now, through the combination with Flipp, a global leader in drive -to-Store marketing solutions. During this time, the handover of my management role to the new management team was carefully accompanied. Together with our new partner Flipp, we see excellent growth opportunities and look forward to the next chapter in MEDIA Central’s success story.
Jan-Daniel Neumann, co-founder and partner at Bregal Unternehmer Kapital, adds: “We have been a partner of MEDIA Central and its founder Stefan Hamacher for more than five years and are proud to support the company on its transformative journey to become a leading specialist in drive-to-store marketing with a significant international and digital business “The merger with Flipp is the logical next step for the group and will offer numerous growth opportunities in the future.”
Luke Myers, co-founder and managing partner of Truelink Capital, comments on the transaction: “By combining Flipp and MEDIA Central, we will create a highly attractive market leader with complementary product offerings and global reach. The financial strength of the combined group will enable us to innovate and create value for our customer base of international retailers and We are very excited about this new partnership and believe it has a promising future.”
The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2024, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
ABOUT FLIP
Founded in 2007, Flipp is a technology platform that is reinventing the way people plan their weekly shopping. The largest retailers and brands in North America use Flipp to create, curate and distribute digital, visual retail experiences and savings offers to more than 100 million consumers. Households use Flipp as their main weekly shopping tool to decide what and where to shop. On average, consumers use Flipp to save $45 on their weekly purchases for groceries, home improvement, electronics, pharmacy, clothing, pet supplies and more. For more information, visit corp.flipp.com.
ABOUT MEDIA CENTRAL GROUP
The MEDIA Central Group is a European market leader for drive-to-store marketing solutions. The group combines the leading specialist for data-based 360° offer communication, MEDIA Central, Europe’s leading drive-to-store technology platform, ShopFully, with the experts for digital offer communication, Offerista Group, and the data science experts for the moment of the purchase decision , Yagora. It has over 900 employees at 21 locations in Europe, Australia and Latin America and currently supports leading retailers and brand manufacturers in 24 countries from all industries.
ABOUT TRUELINK Capital
Truelink Capital is a mid-market private equity firm based in Los Angeles. Truelink combines extensive industry experience in industrial and technology-enabled services with the aim of building partnerships that create long-term value through an operationally focused strategy. Truelink works with management, corporate vendors and founders to accelerate growth through the execution of strategic initiatives and transformative add-on acquisitions.
ABOUT BREGAL ENTREPRENEURIAL CAPITAL
Bregal Unternehmer Kapital (“BU”) is a leading investment company with offices in Zug, Munich and Milan. With a total of EUR7.0 billion in capital raised since its founding, BU is the largest mid-cap investor headquartered in the DACH region. The funds advised by BU invest in medium-sized companies based in Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. With a mission to be the preferred partner for entrepreneurs and family businesses, BU relies on partnerships with market leaders and “hidden champions” with strong management teams and growth potential. Since its founding in 2015, the funds advised by BU have invested over EUR3.5 billion in more than 100 companies with over 28,000 employees. More than 8,200 jobs were created. BU supports entrepreneurs and families as a strategic partner to further develop, internationalize and digitalize their companies, and helps them to create sustainable values responsibly and with the next generation in mind. For more information, see https://www.bregal.ch.