Ringier sells Geschenkidee.ch to Swiss investor group
As a strategic investment, a Swiss investor group advised by SME Equity Partners has purchased Ringier's shares in Geschenkidee.ch.
In 2008, at the beginning of its transformation into a digital, diversified, internationally active media group, Ringier purchased the e-commerce company Geschenkidee.ch, which had been founded six years earlier. Through continuous investments, further development of the online store as well as the range of products and logistics, Geschenkidee.ch has become the largest online provider of gifts, home accessories and lifestyle products in Switzerland over the last thirteen years, writes the media group in a communiqué.
Now a group of investors advised by SME Equity Partners is taking over the online gift platform. CEO Maud Hoffmann, who has been in office since 2015, will closely accompany the handover process until spring 2022 and then turn her attention to new challenges.
The change of ownership would create new opportunities for Geschenkidee.ch, as Ringier CEO Marc Walder notes in the release: "The strategy of the Swiss investor group has convinced us."
"We are convinced of the good foundation as well as the impressive development of Geschenkidee.ch under the leadership of Maud Hoffmann," adds Christoph Weber, Chairman of the Board of SME. "With Thomas Herbert, the former CEO Globus and, among other things, today's VRP Mode Bayard, we were able to gain a proven expert for the further development of Geschenkidee.ch."
Thomas Herbert will take over as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Geschenkidee.ch.
