Paris, November 29th – The Walden Group, a major player in healthcare logistics in Europe, has entered exclusive negotiations with the Italian Marzano Family and Mr. Gaetano Colella to acquire both XCM Healthcare, logistics company and Unitex, healthcare last mile transport company. These two strategic acquisitions will allow the Walden Group to enter the Italian Market.
“I’m delighted to see our two families coming closer together. I am convinced that together with their local expertise and our European footprint, we will achieve a lot. Italy is one of Europe’s main markets and it is about time that we offer our healthcare clients a best-in-class integrated solution,” says Stéphane Baudry, Chairman of the Walden group.
Italy recently ranked as one of the leading European pharmaceutical manufacturing markets, with a high focus on biotechnology both locally and internationally.[1]
“For us, it would be a great opportunity to carry on our family business, to ensure our company will continue its development in the Italian market, and to widen our horizons towards Europe. We would be happy to join forces with the Walden Group, a family business that shares common values with us”, says Raffaele Marzano, shareholder of Farmacia S. Caterina, family business of the Marzano Family that holds a majority stake in both XCM Healthcare and Unitex.
The Italian companies manage 2 logistics hubs situated in Milan and Napoli, one of the largest cold storage facilities in southern Italy, and a network of 24 cold transport delivery regional sites.
“The integration of XCM Healthcare and its subsidiary UNITEX into the Walden Group is a source of immense pride and satisfaction for myself, my partners, and my colleagues. With this acquisition, we will have the opportunity to consolidate our market positioning and invest in Italy, bringing advanced processes based on the highest quality of pharmaceutical warehousing and distribution services to our country. A journey that began in the summer of 2020 has rewarded us after just 3 years of hard work, making us leading providers of high-value services. I thank Stéphane Baudry for choosing us and bringing his expertise and vision for the future of the European pharmaceutical distribution business, which will bring great innovations to the Italian market,” concludes the CEO and General Manager Mr. Gaetano Colella.
Following the successful completion of the due diligence, the transaction is expected to be finalised by the end of the year, subject to review and approval by the relevant authorities.
XCM Healthcare and Unitex are being advised by Investis Advisory, with a team supervised by Paolo Fassio (Partner), and led by Yefa N. K. Obeng (Associate) and Silvio Calore (Analyst), as financial advisors, throughout the process.
About XCM Healthcare and Unitex
XCM Healthcare and Unitex are two Italian companies specialised in providing controlled temperature logistics and transportation services for pharmaceutical products. The companies offer an integrated platform structured across 2 business units that operate synergically and spread between Lombardy and Campania. The mission, carried by the CEO and General Manager Mr. Gaetano Colella and the Marzano Family, is to create a specialist actor in the temperature-controlled logistics and transportation market, becoming a national reference in terms of service quality, innovation, and supply model.
About the Walden Group
Founded in 1951 in the centre of France, the Walden Group is a family-owned company and a leading actor in healthcare supply chain solutions in Europe. The group offers end to end services for every step of the pharmaceutical supply chain: from classic logistics to cutting edge added value services (order to cash, secondary packaging, serialization, etc.). Within the group, each business unit specializes in key areas of the supply chain: Transpharma International in first-mile transport and freight forwarding, Movianto in logistics and added value services, and Eurotranspharma in last mile solutions. The group’s growth, with a turnover of €2.6 billion in 2022, is driven by a strong capacity to adapt to the market where it operates, especially by investing in new infrastructures, automation, and digital tools. Thanks to an ambitious external growth strategy, the group is now present in 15 countries (France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, England, Ireland, Switzerland, Morocco, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and India). The Walden Group employs more than 6,000 people at over 250 sites and nearly a million m² of warehouses.
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Laure Murat