Facilisgroup announced today that it has been acquired by Elysian Capital LLC, a private equity firm based in London, UK. Headquartered in St. Louis, MO, with offices in Ottawa, Ontario, Facilis will continue to operate as Facilisgroup under the strategic leadership of Dan Rochette (Founder), Martin Weber (CBDO) and Chuck Fandos (CEO). Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Podcast

ASI's Michele Bell interviews Chuck Fandos – CEO of the Facilisgroup, Counselor’s 2016 Person of the Year and the fifth-highest ranked person on this year’s Counselor Power 50 list – on Elysian Capital’s acquisition of Facilis, the formation of the Pebble Group, which will focus on acquisitions in the ad specialty market, and the recent interest of private equity investment in promo companies.

Facilis is a promo tech and consulting group that represents companies with more than a half a billion dollars in annual sales. Executives said this acquisition is an important next step in the organization's growth and evolution. “Over the past year, we have built a firm relationship with Elysian as an investor in (UK-based promo distributor) Brand Addition (asi/202515),” the business that acquired GatewayCDI from Fandos in 2016. “Elysian shares our vision for Facilisgroup and mirrors our mission to help our partners be ever more competitive and successful,” said Fandos.

The PE backing will enable Facilisgroup to ramp up its enterprise-scale growth plans and will be an important development for its distributor partners, as they will benefit from accelerated investment and service enhancements, executives said. 

“We are really excited about our investment in Facilisgroup, our second in the industry,” said Tom Falcon, chairman of the Pebble Group and operating partner of Elysian Capital LLP. “In Facilis, we see a committed and extremely capable team, who helps their terrific community of partners grow via their industry leading technology and supplier partners.”

Pebble Group Chairman Tom Falcon (left) and Facilisgroup CEO Chuck Fandos (right)

Elysian is also announcing the formation of the Pebble Group, which will focus on the promotional sector. While retaining their separate brands, growth strategies and management teams, Facilisgroup and Brand Addition will both become a part of this new entity. “There are a number of exciting opportunities for Facilisgroup and its partners under common ownership with Brand Addition given the group’s combined business spend, enhanced geographic presence and continued investment in technology,” Elysian said in a statement.

Elysian’s purchase of Facilisgroup calls attention to private equity’s increasing investment in the promotional products industry. As Counselor detailed in this exclusive report, PE money has been pouring into the promo space like never before in recent years. Executives in the promo industry and the PE world both expect that influx of capital to continue.

“The PE market is waking up to the underlying attractions in the promotional products sector – market growth, buy and build opportunities, efficiency opportunities, globalization, further penetration of corporate accounts, etc.,” says David Colclough, a partner with Elysian Capital. “It’s a great sector to invest in with long-term positive growth drivers and opportunities.”

Suppliers and distributors connected with private equity companies say their partners provide investment power, business insight and operational expertise that are helping to drive efficiencies and growth in sales and profitability. More broadly, the influx of private equity dollars is increasing consolidation across the branded merchandise market and pressuring middle-sized and larger suppliers and distributors, whether PE-backed or not, to scale up and become more streamlined, according to promo executives. In the eyes of some, private equity money also represents a potential threat to the longstanding industry model that centers on domestic suppliers selling to distributors, and distributors selling to end-buyers.