In early 2002 ARX was introduced to Ergis and its CEO Tadeusz Nowicki by Marek Górski, previously chairman of the Ergis supervisory board. At that time the company was owned by a number of Polish Privatization Funds (NFI), Polish State Treasury and employees. It produced mainly films for the broadly defined construction and decorative sectors.
The managers identified the opportunity for a leveraged buy-out that could arise from the company’s fragmented ownership structure, strong interest of key shareholders in divesting their stakes relatively quickly and limited visibility of Ergis value creation potential due to ongoing restructuring process.
Ergis Group was comprised at that time of several companies and production sites. The CEO had the vision to modernize the Group and to develop it to become a leading producer of packaging films in Central and Eastern Europe.
The managers understood that their aspirations could not be materialized without support of a new business partner. This new business partner was required to bring capital as well as strategic support needed by the managers to grow the business further.
In 2003, ARX partnered with Marek Górski and Tadeusz Nowicki in the buy-out of Ergis. The transaction was implemented in the years 2003 – 2004. In result the managers became co-owners of the business.
Since the date of the initial ARX investment, Ergis has:
- Tripled annual revenues from € 50 million in 2003 to € 150 million in 2011,
- Successfully floated Eurofilms (its former subsidiary) on the WSE in June 2006 and subsequently become listed after a reverse takeover of Eurofilms in June 2007,
- Identified and executed complementary add-on acquisitions in Poland and Germany (Flexergis, MKF Folien and Schimanski in 2007),
- Become an important supplier of packaging films to the food processing industry, and
- Introduced new products such as multilayer laminated PET rigid films and multilayer stretch films while also expanding its presence on the Western European market.