Victoria has sold its Turkish ceramic tile subsidiary Graniser in the face of lower demand and profitability.
The group has sold the business to Hasan Akgün, part of the Akgün Group owning family. The Akgün Group operates in the construction materials, automotive, insurance, logistics and oil sectors across Turkey and internationally. It is one of the largest companies in Turkey with 5,000 employees and 17 factories.
It has secured a deal for Graniser new owner to supply it with ‘Victoria Group-specific ceramic tiles at manufactured-cost pricing’ which it says will boost profits.
‘Having experienced a difficult demand environment recently, the sale of Graniser to, and partnership with, Mr Akgün will provide Victoria’s ceramic tiles business continued access to cost-effective tiles whilst contributing towards the deleveraging of the group’s balance sheet by reducing leverage by approximately 0.5 times,’ says Philippe Hamers, Victoria group chief executive.
Victoria’s original rational for the purchase was the diversification of its ceramic tiles manufacturing footprint into a lower energy, labour, and raw material price environment. It says the long-term supply agreement secures this aim.
The group paid €8.4m in cash plus €39.8m to repay the company’s net debt in February 2022. It had generated sales of €59.3m and EBITDA of about €9m in 2020.
Akgün is paying €10m plus taking on €26.8 of debt.
Victoria invested in the Izmir business, including €9m in 2023 to improve the quality of tiles and packaging to European and American standards which it said at the time would deliver EBITDA of more than €4m a year.
During its ownership Victoria had to deal with drastically higher gas prices, which in contrast to its actions forced many of Graniser’s rival to cease production.
