The German digital signage retail specialist Bütema acquired fellow digital signage provider Wedeko. A small but fine digital signage hidden champion with a focus on bakeries, QSR and municipalities. The transaction complements Bütema’s ongoing growth rate of 30+ percent annually. invidis talked to Bütema COO Lutz Hollmann-Raabe.
Bütema has been a fixture in retail for over 20 years. With customers such as one of Europe’s largest beauty and healthcare retailer Rossmann (partly owned by Watson AS) and department store Galeria, the owner-managed system integrator with CMS platform from the Stuttgart region provides retailers with business-critical applications such as digital signage and mobile ERP. The success proves Bütema founder and CEO Dirk Fintrop and COO Lutz Hollmann-Raabe right. The medium-sized company with sales of more than 20 million euros has been able to increase sales by more than 30 percent every year since the pandemic.
On top of the exceptional organic growth, Bütema acquired the assets of Wedeko – an established digital signage full service provider integrator. Wedeko – originally founded as a POS printing service provider for the bakery industry – generates an annual turnover of 3 million Euros serving mainly bakeries, QSR stores and municipalities. More than 500 customers Germany-wide use digital signage solutions from Wedeko.
“Wedeko provides many innovative industry solutions that complement the Bütema retail portfolio,” said Lutz Hollmann-Raabe to invidis. “In the last few weeks, we completed the preparations for the integration. With closing on March 1, the Wedeko business will be fully integrated into our management systems and also operationally.”
Bütema keeps the Wedeko brand for digital signage totems and shop window solutions, but Wedeko will be visually closer to Bütema. “We can learn a lot from each other and will immediately benefit from economies of scale. With our own service technicians nationwide, the combined more than 15,000 digital signage touchpoints can now be serviced more efficiently.”
But Bütema is also expanding its own service network outside of its German home market. “We continue to grow organically much faster than the market.” After Wedeko is fully integrated Bütema remains open for further acquisitions to complement the portfolio. The market is consolidating and Bütema wants to continue playing an active role.
