Alpine Hearing Protection confirms its ambitious expansion strategy with a second add-on acquisition

Utrecht (NL), 12 March 2020 – Alpine, the leading hearing protection brand, is further expanding its leading position through the acquisition of Acoufun. The acquisition strengthens Alpine’s position in France across various important sales channels including concert halls, festivals, music stores, supermarkets, pharmacies and audiologists. In addition, it is also a major step forward as the leading hearing protection provider at events with the addition of Formula 1®, MotoGP™ and 24h du Mans ®, covering races in Europe and across the rest of the world.

Alpine, headquartered in Soesterberg (the Netherlands), develops and markets premium hearing protection products. At the end of 2018, Vendis Capital was brought on board as shareholder by founders Peter and Lisette de Roode, and Arthur van Keeken was appointed as CEO. All this with a straightforward ambition: to build the winning and largest brand in hearing protection.

Alpine’s strategy is a combination of well-defined organic growth initiatives, bringing high-quality and innovative products to the consumer through all relevant sales channels, and selective buy-and-build to accelerate this growth. This led to Alpine completing its first add-on acquisition in the Netherlands in 2019, with the successful integration of Thunderplugs, and Alpine has now taken its inorganic expansion internationally with the acquisition of Acoufun.

Acoufun, founded in 2006 by Amaury Silvestre de Sacy, is a leading hearing protection player in France. It has a long heritage of selling earplugs and earmuffs to both adults and children at concert halls, venues, festivals and music stores and has more recently expanded into other sales channels in France including supermarkets, pharmacies, audiologists, etc. In addition, Acoufun has built a leading position at car and motorcycle racing events globally, selling hearing protection at Formula 1®, MotoGP™ and 24h du Mans ® races amongst others.

Arthur van Keeken, CEO of Alpine, comments: “This acquisition confirms our strong international growth ambitions. It provides us with an excellent combined market position in France, as well as a global stage at the various races to strengthen our brand awareness. We are grateful for what Amaury and his team have achieved and look forward to welcoming them to our group.”

Amaury Silvestre de Sacy, founder of Acoufun, adds: “We are excited to become part of the Alpine family. By joining forces, we can leverage our existing customer relationships to strengthen Alpine’s position as the leading hearing protection brand. I look forward to pursuing the numerous new growth opportunities in France and abroad with the support of the Alpine organisation.”