Grass is growing for Victoria
May 4, 2021
Victoria plc has become Europe's largest business for premium artificial grass as it acquires the Edel Group of the Netherlands for £50m - the latest of Victoria's ambitious expansion plans.
Edel is a European leader with sales of £47m in 2020 despite Covid-19 and annual growth of 7% in the last three years. Edel has two manufacturing sites in the Netherlands and one in Germany and has contracts with major sporting organisations including its preferred supplier status with the FIFA football authority.
In a statement to shareholders, Kidderminster-based Victoria said: "This is a high-growth sector of the industry with European demand for artificial grass expected to achieve double-digit growth.
"The outlook for domestic demand remains positive with growing consumer acceptance of artificial grass due to enhanced realism and increasing awareness of its advantages when compared with natural grass, including limited maintenance and water requirements. Furthermore, there is a backlog in municipal and commercial landscaping applications (e.g. road verges and hotels), school and play areas and sports landscapes, which were deferred during 2020," it said.
Victoria already has a strong presence in artificial grass following its February 2017 acquisitions of Avalon and GrassInc.
The move is part of Victoria's stated aim to expand rpidly through acquisition in 2021. Geoff Wilding, Executive Chairman, said: “Victoria has, so far this financial year, invested a little over £90 million to add approximately £17 million of EBITDA [profit] to the Group. We continue to have substantial amounts of capital to deploy and are in active discussions with additional high-quality opportunities to grow our business. Therefore, shareholders can expect further acquisitions in the weeks and months ahead.”
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