The Lyon fund Solexia completes 2024 by purchasing four companies, including Renzo l'artisan glacier, in Viviers-du-Lac, in Savoie, and Boyauderie des Savoie, in Seynod, in Haute-Savoie.
Solexia, a Lyon-based entrepreneurial investment fund, is increasing its appetite. In the second half of 2024, it signed four new acquisitions in the agri-food sector in Rhône-Alpes. “This sector has real resilience in an unstable world,” points out its founding president, Hervé Kratiroff, holder of 80% of the shares alongside his partner Éric Versini (20%), also general director (in photo).
The group, which is growing at the usual rate of one operation per year, has really worked hard:
“It was not planned, but we seized the great opportunities that presented themselves,” welcomes the president of Solexia, who manages his companies like a good father, by being involved in operational matters.
And to recall its typical model: “ an exclusively family-owned and healthy SME, operating in a niche market.”
Create synergies
Of the four companies taken over, two are based in Savoie, “with the desire to strengthen our position in this territory”, confirms Hervé Kratiroff. After having set foot there in 2021 with the acquisition of Salaisons Savoyardes (2023 turnover: €4.6 million), in Cognin, Solexia acquired, on September 16, the Savoy Boyauderiebased in Seynod (74).
“A business – the 3rde hose producer in France – which is well established. We targeted her for her recognized expertise in a technical field,” welcomes Hervé Kratiroff.
This SME of 12 employees with a turnover of €22.7 million (of which 50% in Aura) sources natural casings throughout the world, which it transforms in its subsidiaries (in Morocco and Portugal) and workshops. of its partners abroad – where labor costs are lower – to supply cured meats, butchers and charcutiers (500 customers in France). In 2025, it will absorb Boyauderie Panier (Rhône, turnover of €5.2 million, 6 employees), taken over in September.
It is with this same perspective of complementarity that the investment fund purchased, on July 1, 2024, Renzo the ice cream makerin Viviers-du-Lac (73), a company of 10 employees with a high-end positioning, whose revenues amount to €2 million.
“It is part of the development of the “fruit” activity, which we launched in 2018 by taking over Bissardon Jus de fruits, in the Loire”, said the president of Sodexia, adding: “We were looking for an ice cream parlor to take over, because there are real synergies between juices and ice creams. »
The group also intends to position the brand in large and medium-sized stores (where it is not present), under the Glacier savoyard brand. For the moment, Renzo the ice cream maker generates a third of his income from his store, a third from catering and the rest from wholesalers. Solexia also plans to invest and recruit:“The current premises already make it possible to double the size of the company. »
The latest company to join the group, on October 21, is Maison Bayle (turnover of €9.8 million; 60 employees), a butcher, caterer and pastry chef known in the Gier valley (Loire). So many transactions that the independent fund finances 50% in equity and 50% in bank debt.
After integration, the Solexia group, which now has 16 companies and 596 employees (including 14 at headquarters), displays a cumulative turnover of €160 millioncompared to €129.7 million in 2023.
Patricia King
Featured photo: Boyauderie de Savoie – credit Solexia
