di support announces new international shareholder structure

di support announces new international shareholder structure

With ACC Holding and Kanematsu Corporation, di support GmbH has two new shareholders. The former minority shareholder Fotoco sold its shares in the course of the transaction.

di support, founded in 2000 with its headquarters in Frankfurt / Main Eschborn (Germany), offers a leading product portfolio for product personalization. The core business is solutions for the instant printing of photos and gift items. The company is growing dynamically and is, in particular, constantly expanding its range for smartphone users.

ACC Holding from Hamburg has acquired a majority shareholding and will support the dynamic growth of di support in the future. The Japanese-based, publicly traded company Kanematsu is a new minority shareholder and will support the international expansion of the business and create synergies in the areas of international sales, supply chain and logistics. Kanematsu is one of the largest distributors of photo printers and is active worldwide. The company’s locations in Eschborn and Poznan are to be further expanded.

Ralph Naruhn and Matthias Linhart will continue to be managing directors of di support. Both also remain significant shareholders in the company.

“Kanematsu Corporation on board as new shareholders. This innovative shareholder mix of financial investor and international strategic partner will help us to release synergies and to be able to realize our national and international growth plans in the coming years,” commented di support co-founder and managing director Ralph Naruhn. ”We can finally scale our innovative products as much as we would like in the market. The partnership is characterized by mutual respect and will bring lasting positive effects to employees, the company and its customers.”

ACC managing director Edward Capel-Cure explained: “di support has developed an array of new and innovative products and is now at the beginning of the next phase of growth. We are excited to be a partner of the business going forward and help the management team realize their ambitious growth plans on the back of the strengthened capital base and highly complementary partnership with Kanematsu.”

Kanematsu senior executive officer Masahiro Harada added: ”We are delighted to come across the tremendous opportunity to work together with di support and ACC and help di support independently run and grow the company in supply chain and logistics. We also believe that di support will establish the foundation for an evolving digital imaging platform and our mutual synergy will create innovative solutions and services beyond instant photo prints.”

The Federal Cartel Office has approved the transaction on December 18, 2019.