The Brabant entrepreneur Robert van der Wallen becomes the owner of BrandLoyalty again. His investment company Opportunity Partners is taking over this organizer of promotions for supermarkets, it was announced on Thursday.
Van der Wallen (56) founded BrandLoyalty in Hong Kong in 1995. Ten years ago he sold it to an American colleague, which earned him almost a billion euros.
It is not known for what amount Van der Wallen will now buy back his former company. Insiders say that the acquisition price is modest, as BrandLoyalty’s financial results have been under considerable pressure in recent years.
Sunglasses and suitcases
BrandLoyalty has grown with savings stamps and promotional campaigns in supermarkets, where customers could save for, for example, pan and cutlery sets, glasses, fresh containers, sunglasses and suitcases. The purpose of loyalty programs is that supermarkets attract more customers who put more products in their shopping cart. Data analysis is also important here, in order to better understand customer behaviour.
In 2013, Alliance Data Systems (ADS), the American market leader in promotions, initially paid 267 million euros for 60 percent of the shares. In the years that followed, it bought 10 percent of the shares at a price that depended on performance. Since BrandLoyalty’s financial results were excellent in those years, Van der Wallen received a much higher amount for his remaining 40 percent than for the first 60 percent. The total acquisition amount amounted to almost one billion euros.
The agreement was that Van der Wallen remained as CEO as long as he still had shares. He eventually sold his last 20 percent in one go, in the summer of 2016. He invested part of his accumulated capital in investment company Parcom. In addition, he started his own investment company Opportunity Partners in the spring of 2017. He threw himself into the construction of a golf course in Cromvoirt and bought a vineyard in California.
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Back in savings promotions
At the end of 2020, he decided to start another business in the loyalty industry. He had attempted to buy back BrandLoyalty, but had failed: negotiations with the Americans never came to fruition. Van der Wallen then bought two smaller savings promotion companies from Germany and Italy and merged them. He named his new company L – Founders of Loyalty. He established the office in Den Bosch, near the station and a few hundred meters from the BrandLoyalty office. Some of L’s employees come from BrandLoyalty.
In 2016, BrandLoyalty achieved a turnover of more than 600 million euros. There is now less than 400 million euros left. The company is now loss making. The turnover of L – Founders of Loyalty is skyrocketing. It already made a turnover of 260 million euros in 2022, say those involved.
In his press statement, Van der Wallen indicates that the acquisition is “strategically important”. He will probably want to merge BrandLoyalty with L.
BrandLoyalty employs approximately 450 people, 150 of whom work in the Netherlands. L has 225 employees. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.
IPO
Since 2021, BrandLoyalty was no longer a subsidiary of Alliance Data Systems. In that year, ADS split off its loyalty branch, consisting of the Canadian AirMiles and BrandLoyalty. The two continued under the name Loyalty Ventures and were listed on the American stock exchange Nasdaq. At the IPO, Loyalty Ventures was valued at $800 million. At the current exchange rate, there is still about $43 million left. The results are declining and the company has a debt of 600 million dollars. The Loyalty Ventures mutual fund will continue without BrandLoyalty.