UnieKaas: Willem Jan Rote,
Paul Wilde, Roeland Brokking
Acquisition of UnieKaas by Parcom Ventures and a
new management team
In Kaas (Cheese), a novel by Willem Elsschot, the main char-
acter decides to try his luck in the cheese trade. `Cheese', he
thinks, `will always succeed; I mean people have to eat. Don't
they?' His adventure fails miserably. However, despite having no
experience in selling, nor any talent for it, and with a pointed
aversion for his product, he does succeed in shifting a couple
of tons of cheese. Willem Jan Rote also launched himself into
the cheese business, but his chances were much better from
square one.
`I come from a family business background, but my own experi-
ence is corporate, with Unilever and Pepsico. That was good
practice for what I'm doing now: building up my own company.'
When researching opportunities for Pepsico to acquire a cheese
factory in Ukraine, Rote sought advice on mergers and acquisi-
tions, as well as insight into the cheese market. `I had run into
Hans van Ierland, Holland Corporate Finances co founder, at
some time in the past and that's how I arrived at Holland Corpo-
rate Finance's door.'
New direction
From this point forward, Rote's plans went off in quite a different
direction. Van Ierland knew the UnieKaas families and knew they
were looking for a successor. The link was quickly established.
Together with Paul Wilde, an old student friend versed in con-
sumer marketing, Rote decided to bid on UnieKaas. The search
forafinancialinvestorbroughtthemtoParcom,thecaptivepri-
vate equity company of ING. `We primarily look at a company's
growth model', explains Roeland Brokking, its deputy director.
`UnieKaas's commercial position in the Netherlands had been
weakened; it was in this area that we thought Willem Jan Rote
could create quite some value. In addition, we foresee consoli-
dation taking place in the Dutch cheese sector, so by way of a
buy-and-build strategy we could also achieve growth.' Brokking
recognises Holland Corporate Finance's contribution when Uni-
eKaas, Rote and Parcom came together. `They have an excel-
lent and extensive network, with contacts that often work on the
personal level too, which was exactly the case with the UnieKaas
families. This makes them good at matching the right buyer with
the right company.'
Proposal more exciting than the ceremony
The negotiations, already a complex and risky process with
a management buy-in, rose to new heights when Rote and
Parcom set a new condition: they also wanted control of Best
Cheese, UnieKaas's American distributor. This meant some
protracted and tough negotiations were required for buying out
Best Cheese's owner, before the takeover of UnieKaas in the
Netherlandscouldfinallybeclosed.Roteoutlinesthedilemma
he wrestled with during this process: `The more time you spend
on a deal, the more you want it to succeed. At the same time you
know that in order to get the best deal possible, you have to be
continuously prepared to walk away.' The most exciting moment
in the negotiations?
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