based on vision rather than on past results', Sieljes illustrates
the tricky situation.
What would eventually secured the deal was the sense of trust
which everyone had developed.
`It takes three to tango in a buy-out, and the way in which Holland
Corporate Finance supervised the negotiating process absolute-
ly contributed to its success. We always put everything right out
on the table and tried to present realistic expectations for the
future. This created trust, which helped in making it through the
more delicate phases in the process.'
It takes three to tango in a buy-out
And that sense of trust is still intact today. `I feel blessed with
such investors. In the seven years since the buy-out there has
never been any talk of an exit, nor have we made any arrange-
ments for it. They haven't received a single cent of dividend;
everything has been reinvested in the company. They seem to
approve of what we're doing.'
My cup of tea
Once it stood on its own two feet, Zwart was positioned for a
bright future. Between 1998 and 2007 turnover trebled as the
staff grew from 32 to 70. Today, three quarters of the turnover
is generated from ten clients, as opposed to three in 1998. The
shareholders had to bankroll new investments twice during that
period, but after building a second plant and the acquisition of
atwelve-colourrotogravurepressin2006,financinghasbeen
entirelycoveredbythebank.`Confidenceinthiscompanyhas
been completely restored', Sieljes concludes with pride. This is
alsoreflectedbyZwart'smostrecentplans.Zwartsealedadeal
with Unilever as the single supplier for Unilever's tea factory in
Russiaforthenextfiveyears.ThesiteinRussiawillproduce4.2
billion tags for tea bags.
Maybe we will finally be replacing these office chairs
`Although we did toast the successful buy-out, we certainly did
not push the boat out. After all, it was only the beginning and
we still had a long way to go.' Having nearly reached that sta-
tiontoday,thereismoreroomtoreflectonsuccess.`Weplanto
renovatetheoutsideofthisbuilding,andmaybeit'sfinallytime
toreplacetheseofficechairs.Onceayearwetakeourclients
car racing at the Assen track. I always invite Arthur Tjon to come
and help us out. He really enjoys being our instructor.'
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