Bloom & Wild, a London-based online flower delivery and gifting platform has acquired the entire share capital of bloomon, a Netherlands-based competitor, for an undisclosed sum.
Post the acquisition, Bloom & Wild has become the largest online operator in the region’s £22 billion flowers and house plant market by a number of deliveries.
“This is a great deal for both companies, all team members and our customers. The acquisition delivers immediate scale across Europe and provides new and exciting opportunities for all staff from both businesses, who will be retained to drive ambitious growth across the continent. The entire management team is fully committed and invested in the long term success of the enlarged business and we are thrilled to invest in both brands as we accelerate our plans for European expansion,” said Bart Troost, CEO of bloomon, who will take up the new role of Chief International Officer.
Patrick Hurenkamp will retain his current position as Chief Innovation Officer and alongside Troost will report directly to Aron Gelbard who will be CEO of the enlarged business.
“On a pro forma basis the combined business expects to exceed 8 million deliveries in 2021, with forecast revenues for the current financial year, ending 31 March 2022, substantially north of £200 million. The enlarged business is expected to be profitable from the outset. The deal is to be financed from existing cash resources,” says the release.
Amsterdam-based Bloomon
Based out of Amsterdam, Bloomon is a direct-to-consumer online flower delivery business, founded by Bart Troost, Patrick Hurenkamp, and Koen Thijssen in 2014.
The company has grown rapidly in recent years and has a presence in five European countries including, Belgium, Denmark, and Germany, employing a team of 130.
Highly complementary
According to the company, the deal is highly complementary in terms of both geographic footprint and product. bloomon is strong in the Benelux and Danish markets, where Bloom & Wild has no presence, and small in the UK, where Bloom & Wild is the clear market leader.
In Germany, the combined entity will command valuable scale benefits from the effective doubling of its market share overnight. Furthermore, there are substantial opportunities for product-driven revenue synergies given bloomon’s heritage in subscriptions.
Bloom & Wild
Founded in 2013 by Aron Gelbard and Ben Stanway, Bloom & Wild aims to become the pan-European market leader in flower and gift delivery. To date, the company has raised £96 million of equity over four institutional funding rounds, having completed its latest £75 million raise in January 2021.
Aron Gelbard, CEO and co-founder of Bloom & Wild said: “With the completion of our first acquisition, we have created Europe’s leading online flower delivery company. Over the past eight years, we’ve grown rapidly, entirely through organic growth, into a profitable business with revenues substantially north of £100m. And now we’re excited to consolidate two leading players in the fragmented, £22bn European flower and house plant market. Together, we will continue to drive industry change and build on our ambitious sustainability roadmap. I’m thrilled to welcome all of our new team members to the Bloom & Wild family. We have a shared ambition, common values, and a mutual obsession with harnessing technology, supply chain innovation, and outstanding bouquet design to revolutionise the customer experience. Our tech and data science platform, scale, and investor backing make us the natural consolidator as we continue to target rapid growth through organic and inorganic means, and further extend our European market leadership.”
Jonathan Klein, Executive in Residence at General Catalyst and Chairman of Bloom & Wild said: “Bloom & Wild is one of those rare businesses that leads through culture and values, together with exceptional levels of customer satisfaction, and financial performance that is the envy of most companies. There is considerable room to grow in the UK, notwithstanding the fact that 1 in 60 households in the UK received a package from Bloom & Wild over Mother’s Day weekend, and a huge European opportunity. bloomon has done a similarly spectacular job in its markets. We are excited about what this combination of two strong brands with complementary assets and know- how brings to all stakeholders, especially customers and team members, of both companies.”