Corus and Signadens join forces for European leadership in digital dentures
23-03-2022
Barcelona (ES)/Amersfoort (NL), 23rd of March 2022 - Dutch-Belgian Signadens has joined forces with Corus, the leading dental laboratory group in Spain, France and Portugal. Under the name Corus, they aim to consolidate their position at the forefront of technology and innovation and become market leaders in the field of European digital dental prostheses. The integration creates a cluster with 49 laboratories and 1,200 employees, supporting 9,000 dental practices in five countries in the ongoing modernisation and digital transformation of the industry.
As part of its strategy, Corus aims to integrate local entrepreneurs who then become shareholders of the company, while maintaining the highest level of service locally for their existing customers. Corus operates as an integrated digital platform where dentists can communicate with the local laboratory and patient, while at the same time ensuring prescription traceability and the information needed to tailor products and services to the patient. Together with the integration of the wider network of laboratories, this provides a global solution based on an innovative and differentiated portfolio of working protocols, products, services and training and education while maintaining a local and personalised approach, ensuring better dental care and patient experience.
Corus and Signadens will reach a consolidated turnover of €100 million by the end of 2021. Following the integration, the company plans to grow the business further through a combination of organic growth and the consolidation of more laboratories, both in the current regions and beyond. Current private equity investors Careventures and Quadrum Capital have pledged their support for the company's future growth plans.
Corus is led by co-CEOs Jeroen van Asten (Signadens) and Nicolas Bonnard (Corus). They will share responsibilities for the development of the company, with Van Asten as CEO for the Netherlands and Belgium. Van Asten: "The European market for dental prostheses is undergoing a consolidation process. Digitisation is bringing about far-reaching changes. In the coming years, we want to play a leading role in this transformation by integrating leading laboratories and leveraging the group's capacity for innovation. We look forward to further expanding our products and services in the European market. Countries such as Germany, the UK or Italy have enormous potential, which we are keen to capitalise on."
Nicolas Bonnard, CEO of Corus Spain, Portugal and France, speaks of a new era: "It is a great honour to take on the challenge of leading and developing our company with very talented entrepreneurial partners and an excellent team of experienced managers. Corus, in cooperation with dentists, is driving the paradigm shift in the new era of dentistry: digital, personalised and with high added value for the dentist and for the patient. Based on our corporate structure, where all laboratories own shares in the group, we are well positioned to provide excellent services and products to our customers in the most efficient way."
Juan Roma, partner at Careventures and executive chairman of Corus, said, "At Corus, we are committed to the European development of the company. The confidence, talent and results we have achieved in recent years are testament to the success of our work. Joining forces with Signadens greatly strengthens our position as a leader in the market. Moreover, with the leadership of both Nicolas and Jeroen, I have no doubt that we will continue to achieve success as we see Corus grow further into new markets."
Advisors involved in the transaction were BakerMckenzie, Houthoff, Broseta and Atlas and for the financial DD support Deloitte.
About Corus Corus is the leading European company in the field of advanced dental prosthetics and orthodontics with headquarters in Barcelona. Founded in 2015, Corus is part of the paradigm shift towards a new form of dentistry, 100% digitised, personalised and with added value for the patient. Since its foundation, Corus has integrated 35 dental laboratories, distributed across Spain, France and Portugal, with a team of more than 920 professionals. The European private equity fund Careventures is the main shareholder and investor of Corus, together with the Managing Partners of the group's laboratory.
About Signadens Signadens was founded in 2016 as a collaborative initiative of independent dental technicians to establish a quality label in dental care, "Certified by Signadens", by: (i) investing in automation and digitalisation of activities; (ii) unburdening dental technicians by centralising non-dental activities; (iii) pooling purchasing volume and jointly achieving economies of scale. In December 2020, Dutch mid-market private equity party Quadrum Capital acquired approximately 60% of the company to implement a build-and-buy strategy to consolidate the dental laboratory market in the Benelux and Germany.
About Careventures Careventures is a pan-European private equity firm based in Brussels and Barcelona, specializing in projects for healthcare services.
