How our partnership began

Credo invested in Geia in November 2017. The company had experienced an impressive growth history in the Danish market and established some presence in Norway and Sweden. The overall investment thesis was to develop Geia from “a Danish company with subsidiaries in Norway and Sweden” to become a truly Nordic company, driving real volume advantages across customers and countries. To win this deal, we had to truly understand what separates just any trading or distribution company from a value-add distributor with a strong market position.

The transformation

Under Credo’s ownership, Geia Food rapidly expanded through strategic acquisitions in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, building a Scandinavian top management team and reinforcing its position in carefully prioritised key categories. We also succeeded with immediate working capital optimisation, which reduced leverage and allowed several add-on acquisitions without capital injections. Overall, we succeeded in creating the leading food concept provider in the Nordics, we completely rebuilt the position in Sweden from scratch, and we turbocharged growth in the most margin-rich market Norway, increasing revenues sevenfold in three years.

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Exit

Together, Geia and Credo built a highly scalable business, that can leverage Geia's supplier base across the Scandinavian markets and retailers. This makes the company well-positioned to continue its impressive growth track record in the years to come. The company was sold to the European private equity firm Triton in April 2021 through a structured sales process.