Growth & Buy-out Partners

Food & Fun Invest

An independent private equity company that actively participates in characteristic companies in the food sector. We invest and participate to help these organisations flourish for the long term.

Get in touch Our added value
  • Creating value together as (experienced) entrepreneurs
  • Giving distinctive entrepreneurship the opportunity to grow
  • Proven added value through our focus on the food sector
  • We only invest in companies where we can add value
About us

About Food & Fun Invest

Food & Fun Invest consists of private individuals who were all successful entrepreneurs in the food sector. The companies we participate in are characterised by a leading or promising position in their segment, now or in the past.

Our beliefs stem from the strength and culture of independent entrepreneurship. Just like you, we are building our own businesses every day.

Through our experience, industry knowledge and competences, we can add value to your business. Especially because Food & Fun Invest acts as a partner, and does not just look at your company through an investor’s financial glasses.

Above all, we want to add value to your entrepreneurship as a partner. We are pleased to offer our resources, experience, expertise and lasting commitment.

Our starting point is to grow your company together with you and create more enterprise value. Our aim is to be your entrepreneurial and supportive partner.
The ‘why’

The ‘why’ and our joint opportunities

Time and ongoing developments show that every organisation and every person must reinvent and develop themselves to remain relevant in the future. We are convinced that in every industry you must constantly be on the move, and be inventive as well.

The food sector, with its related products and services, is constantly changing through a range of developments. Think of the impact of (digital) technology, increased blurring, growing retailer power, different requirements and focus of banks, increasing specialisation and concentration of suppliers, stricter legal requirements for food, the shrinking time between ordering and consuming, new food concepts and food as an experience.

This means entrepreneurs are increasingly challenged and the business landscape is changing ever faster. The individual entrepreneur faces many challenges, and the following questions arise.

Alone

“Will I continue my business independently?”

That means less growth, less investment and therefore more risk and ‘only-me’ operating.

Together

“Do I collaborate with others?”

That means more opportunities for growth, more investment, less risk, more continuity and operating ‘stronger together’ with partners.

With these developments in the sector and the strategic choices in mind, the entrepreneur wants to make the right decisions, and know what opportunities they can bring for the company and for themselves.

Food & Fun Invest can assist you with this challenge. We are curious about your ambitions and ideas, and look forward to discussing them with you. Please contact us for a first, no-obligation conversation about joint opportunities.

Schedule a conversation

Philosophy

Collaboration, equality and respect

Food & Fun Invest consists of highly motivated (former) entrepreneurs of specialised, privately held businesses. Our values are collaboration, equality, respect, growth and personal involvement.

Food & Fun Invest is looking for opportunities and is hungry to capitalise on them. Our vision is based on structural, long-term revenue and profit growth. Together, we aim to develop a distinctive strategy combined with a pragmatic commercial focus.

Our principles

  1. We do our business with integrity.
  2. We are service- and result-focused.
  3. We take well-considered decisions.
  4. Long-term relationships are our basis.
Investment focus

Investing in promising, ambitious food companies

The drive of Food & Fun Invest is to invest in promising, ambitious companies and their entrepreneurs. As an investor and partner, we focus exclusively on the food sector. Within this sector, we are a highly specialised party in management buy-outs and growth capital.

The participants of Food & Fun Invest only invest in companies where they can jointly add value. An experienced team of professionals manages several companies with a combined turnover of around 250 million euros.

In consultation with you, Food & Fun Invest reorganises the financing structure and aims to bring companies to a higher level in terms of market position, business model and size.

We are pleased to build long-term relationships with founders and/or the management of organisations, with all options open. Our aim: continuity of the company and meeting the needs of the entrepreneur.

Sector
  • Food and related products and services
  • Wholesale, production, (online) retail, retail concepts and family businesses
Turnover
€ 2 – 50 million
Financing
  • Growth (make and/or buy & build)
  • Management buy-outs
  • Restructuring
Equity investment
€ 0.5 – 5 million
Region
The Netherlands & Belgium

Co-operate, improve performance & accelerate

Our added value

We support entrepreneurs and management with

With hands-on entrepreneurial experience, industry knowledge and funding, we help with the key challenges of a growing food company.

Team

Who we are

Portrait of Luc Daemen

Luc Daemen

Day-to-day management, participations and portfolio expansion

Versatile and successful senior executive with over 25 years of management, commercial, financial and leadership experience in services and consumer products. After Royal Nedlloyd and Eurofar International, Luc was associated with Deloitte and Grant Thornton as an M&A advisor (and partner) from 2001 to 2017.

He has successfully completed a wide range of projects, including buy-and-build, mergers and disposals, performance improvement and growth investments in various sectors, including food wholesale, manufacturing and retail. Luc is a strategist: no-nonsense, pragmatic and people-oriented. He loves Spain, plays football and is a football coach.

Within Food & Fun Invest, Luc runs the day-to-day business of the investment company and is responsible for the existing participations and portfolio expansion.

+31 6 1522 0875 l.daemen@foodfuninvest.com
Portrait of Henk Strootman

Henk Strootman

Sounding board and sparring partner for entrepreneurs, manages the investors

Henk has gained more than 40 years of entrepreneurial experience in retail, wholesale, consumer products and food. He led the Strootman Group to become an organisation with 80 million in sales. With his Rotterdam roots, it is in Henk’s genes to strive for growth by seizing new opportunities, creating team spirit and exceeding customer and supplier expectations.

He knows how to operate successfully with small independent entrepreneurs and large multinationals. Since 2011, Henk has been an instructor in the Executive MBA Food & Innovation programme at Nyenrode Business University. His passion lies in creating win-win situations and he strongly believes in knowledge sharing and cooperation.

Within Food & Fun Invest, Henk focuses primarily on being a sounding board and sparring partner for the entrepreneurs and management teams of the companies Food & Fun Invest invests in. Henk is also responsible for managing the food investors and entrepreneurs behind Food & Fun Invest.

+31 6 5186 8022 h.strootman@foodfuninvest.com
Portfolio

(Former) participations

Characteristic food companies in which Food & Fun Invest participates or has participated.

  • Dutchmeals.com
  • Zijerveld Cheese Unlimited
  • Gumbuddy
  • Strootman Group
  • Den Hollander Food
  • MAAZ Dairy Foods
  • La Bonbonnerie
  • Tosca, Masters in Chocolate
  • Rousseau Chocolade
  • Candy Dudes
Shareholders

Entrepreneurs who know where you stand

Entrepreneur

The shareholders of Food & Fun Invest are successful independent entrepreneurs in the food sector, and/or still play a role as owner-director or supervisory board member in their companies.

Hands-on cleverness

The shareholders of Food & Fun Invest are hands-on, but no longer want to be at the controls themselves.

Sharing experience

Besides entrepreneurial experience, they also have experience with the sale of one or more of their companies, and know the business and personal considerations involved.

Involved

Based on their expertise and interests, the shareholders of Food & Fun Invest also take part in the supervisory boards of the participations.

Contact

Curious about our joint opportunities?

Please get in touch for a no-obligation conversation. We would love to hear about your ambitions and ideas.

Address

Food & Fun Invest
Truckweg 4
4791 VD Moerdijk
The Netherlands

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Luc Daemen

+31 6 1522 0875
l.daemen@foodfuninvest.com

Henk Strootman

+31 6 5186 8022
h.strootman@foodfuninvest.com

Food & Fun Invest is a member of the NVP, the Dutch Private Equity & Venture Capital Association.