Last month, Contraload NV, a leader in plastic pallet pooling in the United Kingdom and European Union, was announced as winner for this year’s Best PE Growth Capital Deal. It won for its acquisition by Tosca, a global leader in reusable packaging solutions and pooling for food supply chains. Jesse Sels, President EMEA at Tosca and founder and former CEO at Contraload took part in the online show of the third edition of the M&A Awards, specifically on the M&A Sofa Sessions where the economist Peter De Keyzwer interviewed him.
“In our business, we knew scalability was the way forward. When Tosca approach us we felt it was the right project for our company and people, to join our upstream business to their downstream and became one stronger partner to service supply chains end to end, from the first mile to the last mile,” explained Sels.
The M&A Awards panel of judges recognized Contraload’s entrepreneurial spirit of providing a solution to ameliorate a key sector of the economy: the transport of raw materials to FMCG companies. With sustainable materials and smart software, Contraload managed to greatly streamline this transport process, while making important strides towards making it more sustainable. Within a few years, the company managed to attain a position as the European market leader, with over 3 million ‘smart pallets’ in circulation. This caught the attention of renowned investment firm Apax Partners, which acquired Contraload through its portfolio company Tosca, a 60-year-old leader in reusable packaging and supply chain solutions in the United States.
Tosca acquired Contraload in August 2020, eight months after buying Polymer Logistics, joining three major players in the global food supply chain space into one stronger partner. Together as one brand, Tosca is ready to serve customers with top-of-the-line customer service, a more robust portfolio of products, a growing and global network, and nimble and innovative R&D and manufacturing capability. Tosca’s product systems are designed to be individually powerful, and together unbeatable.
To watch Jesse Sels’ interview on the M&A Sofa Sessions, visit M&A Sofa Sessions 2020 – M&A Awards 2020. For more information on Tosca’s solutions go to www.toscaltd.com.