BERGSCHENKHOEK, the Netherlands: The worldwide need for efficient and high-quality horticulture solutions is growing rapidly. Codema Systems Group foresees major opportunities for the near future: the business wants to achieve significant national and international growth in the coming years.
With an expansion of the technology and maintenance organization and intensification of marketing and sales efforts, the business intends to realize customer growth. This further professionalization process will be paired with improved financial results. The accent is now on further optimization of the six core activities of Codema and striving for growth, both via direct sales and through takeovers and mergers.
Codema intends to realize these ambitions with a new partner: investment company Nordian Capital. The company’s board, with CEO Marcel Koolen, CFO Lennard van der Ham and CCO Gideon de Jager, will remain unchanged.
The world population is growing rapidly: by 2030, there will be around 8 billion people living on Earth, and by 2050 this will be 9 billion (in comparison, the world population in 1950 was 2.5 billion). This means we all face major challenges. Efficiency and sustainability will therefore be the magic words in the food production of the future, within greenhouse horticulture too. Codema expects that autonomous glasshouses and the ability to cultivate remotely will help achieve breakthroughs to feed more people, to increase food security and produce more food with less resources like water and energy.
International growth acceleration
Codema is convinced that high quality cultivation systems and solutions can help make this efficiency and sustainability improvement. The company, which offers total solutions for efficient and sustainable horticulture, wants to play a role in this, and use it to contribute to a healthier and more sustainable world. Professionalization and internationalization therefore form the spearheads for the coming years. “In recent years, Codema has achieved significant growth, but now is the right time to accelerate this further,” emphasizes CEO Marcel Koolen. “We want to reinforce our position as a total system integrator and make steps forward both nationally and internationally. Right now, Codema is active abroad and we want to establish ourselves firmly in more places in the world in the coming years. We will take the first steps in this strategy by opening branches in the continents of North America and Asia as well as in German speaking countries.
New partner
Codema has found the right partner to realize these outline ambitions: from September 1, Nordian Capital will participate in Codema Systems Group. This private equity investment company, together with Gideon de Jager and Marcel Koolen, will take over the shares of Maarten de Jager, who founded Codema 24 years ago, and developed it into the business it is now.”
“In the first instance, we were seeking a party that could help us to accelerate our growth ambition and that is able to provide proactive support in the area of mergers and takeovers. At the same time, Maarten de Jager was prepared to reduce his share capital in order to provide room for further growth and to allow developments to be realized. This made all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place,” says Marcel Koolen. “Nordian Capital is the ideal party for us as we take this new direction and to realize our ambitions. Because this independent Dutch investor specializes in and has much experience with increasing and accelerating businesses’ global growth.”
This partnership with Nordian Capital offers great opportunities of many kinds for staff, business relations and customers of Codema. By this means we can achieve a larger market share in both food and ornamental plant cultivation, and also the medicinal sector. We will be able to attract more technical specialists, to develop more knowledge and to roll out worldwide service support with locally-based service technicians. Also, we will make major developments in the area of control systems and software.
In short: we are on the eve of a new era. CODEMA. Building a better Tomorrow.
