10/07-07   -   Press releases

Change of Ownership in Baby Dan A/S

Baby Dan, one of the world’s largest developers and producers of safety equipment for children in the age group 0-3 years, has changed owner with effect from 1 July 2007. Goal-oriented, intensive product develop-ment, enhancement of efficiency and increased focus on profitable growth are the company’s future top priority areas, and its overall objective is, and will continue to be, to create a safe everyday life for children and their parents worldwide.

Change of ownership with effect from 1 July 2007
After lengthy negotiations, the owners of Baby Dan have entered into an agreement on a total change of ownership with effect from 1 July 2007. The new owner is a group of investors, headed by Torben S. Frandsen, Managing Director, who, via the acquisition, will provide the company with a strong capital basis as well as competencies and experience gained from management and development of companies in Denmark and abroad.

Injection of new energy and knowhow
After a long career abroad, Torben S. Frandsen was at the helm of the Kjærulff Group from 1997 and until the end of 2006. During this period, the Kjærulff Group successfully developed, produced and sold technical aids as well as nursing requisites and foot care products for elderly persons and disabled persons in Denmark and on the export markets.

Together with the new Board of Directors, consisting of business executives with great experience in the development of companies in Denmark and abroad, Torben S. Frandsen will ensure that Baby Dan is provided with the necessary expertise and knowhow.

Torben S. Frandsen: “Baby Dan is an extremely exciting company with a great unexploited potential on a very attractive market. I am very much looking forward to realising this potential together with the company’s many competent and committed employees and col-laboration partners".

The transfer of a family business
Since the formation of Baby Dan, the company has been a family-owned business for three generations. A sale of 50 % of the shares to three executive employees in 2005, which the resulting change in the company’s management, has not resulted in the desired ex-ploitation of the company’s great potential. For Finn B. Andersen, the company’s former Managing Director, and representative of the family that founded the company in 1947, the sale of the company is completely the right solution.

“The time is right for a change of ownership to ensure a goal-oriented growth strategy aimed at a continued expansion of the market shares and the position for which the company clearly has the potential. It was essential to find the right buyer to ensure a successful change of ownership, and I am personally certain that Torben S. Frandsen is the right buyer and that, together with the employees, he will inject into Baby Dan the energy that is needed to ensure that the company can continue its development as one of the leading companies in the industry worldwide."

Brief presentation of Baby Dan A/S
Baby Dan develops, produces and sells safety equipment for children in the age group 0-3 years. In addition, Baby Dan markets and distributes a large number of textile and furniture products for children in the same age group.
The company is ISO 14001 environmentally certified, a member of Global Safety Cooperation and has won numerous prizes, awards and recognitions for its products both nationally and internationally. Baby Dan has 134 employees and has a worldwide export share of approximately 90 % with sales branches in England, Norway, Sweden and France.