New growth alliance in the sleep segment: Waterland acquires RUF|Betten and BRUNO from NORD Holding

Investment group Waterland Private Equity (“Waterland”) has acquired RUF|Betten and BRUNO. The company is among the leading suppliers of premium beds in the German market. The seller is NORD Holding. RUF and BRUNO’s current management will remain with the companies in their usual function. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022 and is subject to the usual antitrust approval by the German regulatory authorities; no further financial details have been released.
Based in the town of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg, RUF|Betten was established in 1926 and currently has around 200 employees. RUF has a comprehensive offering of box spring beds and upholstered beds and entered the sofa bed market in 2021. The company manufactures over 30,000 high-quality beds each year. The long-established company specialises in stationary furniture sales and prides itself on a high level of individualisation, modern design, and top-class product quality.

Headquartered in Berlin, BRUNO is a direct-to-consumer company (D2C) that specialises in online direct sales of high-quality designer box spring beds and sofa beds. In just a few years, BRUNO has successfully built a leading market position in the D2C bedroom furniture segment in Germany. BRUNO joined the group at the beginning of 2020.

The annual turnover of the group amounts to EUR 60 million. With the support of the new owner and buy-&-build investor Waterland, the group intends to continue its successful growth trajectory and further accelerate it in the medium term through strategic acquisitions. The focus is on continued internationalisation as well as the expansion of the direct-to-consumer division.

Discussing the many years of collaboration, Ronald Grott, member of the management at NORD Holding, notes: “We are very proud of the growth and success that the RUF Group has achieved in the last five years. This investment is an outstanding example of NORD Holding’s strategy of supporting high-quality companies from the DACH region and management teams in order to expand nationally and internationally and foster growth through transformative M&A. We are confident that RUF and BRUNO are in good, experienced hands with Waterland.”

“Thanks to the support from NORD Holding, we have enjoyed outstanding growth in recent years. Together with Waterland, we want to raise this growth to the next level. We are looking forward to the collaboration and to breaking new and innovative ground”, says Heiner Goossens, Managing Director of RUF|Betten.

“We believe that this new partnership opens up further value creation opportunities, particularly in the D2C area. We are looking forward to working with Waterland to strengthen the BRUNO and RUF brands even further in the years ahead”, adds Dr. Felix Baer, BRUNO’s Managing Director.

“RUF|Betten has a wide, loyal customer base, ambitious staff, and experienced management. With BRUNO, the group is also exceptionally well positioned in the D2C segment and has consistently managed to gain market share in recent years”, explains Dr. Carsten Rahlfs, Managing Partner at Waterland. “We intend to build on this growth trajectory through organic drivers as well as further acquisitions in the years ahead. We are looking forward to a successful partnership.”