Vendis Capital sells its stake in Exterioo and Juntoo to founder Jan Ollevier

Vendis Capital is selling its minority stake in Exterioo and Juntoo to founder Jan Ollevier for the next phase of growth

Sakolaki, Jan Ollevier’s holding company, is buying the minority stake in Beliving (the parent company behind Juntoo and Exterioo) from Vendis Capital and a private investor, returning to 100% ownership. Jan Ollevier is the original founder of Beliving. He will lead the company together with Dominique Motte as CEO and will continue to build on the growth of Juntoo and Exterioo at home and abroad with the current management team.

Beliving is a growing (garden) furniture retailer -previously known as Overstock. Since 2016, the collaboration between Jan Ollevier, Vendis Capital, and a strengthened management team has led to a thorough transformation of the company:

• The ‘Overstock’ brand was rebranded into 2 full-fledged and stand-alone brands: Exterioo (garden furniture) and Juntoo (indoor furniture). Both brands put a strong focus on design, modularity and a unique price-quality ratio through its vertically integrated business model;
• A strong focus was placed on digitalisation and an omni-channel experience for the customer through the construction of a new online platform and ERP system. The Juntoo and Exterioo websites experienced tremendous growth – partly due to the covid pandemic;
• Geographical reach was further extended by showroom openings in Belgium and expansion into the Netherlands;
  • Exterioo now has 33 showrooms of around 2000m2 of which 26 in Belgium and 7 in the Netherlands
  • Juntoo moved many showrooms to 1500m² premises and also opened a number of new showrooms. Just last week a new showroom opened in Asse. Juntoo Belgium’s counter stands at 18 showrooms
• To support the strong growth, a brand new 80,000m² warehouse in the Port Of Ghent was commissioned.

Dominique Motte, CEO at Beliving, further explains, “We have transformed Beliving into an omnichannel retail company, focusing on the customer and on a beautiful and timeless product. The rebrandings to Exterioo and Juntoo, as well as the digital transformation with new web platforms, ERP systems and POS systems provide the basis for the further growth of our 2 retail brands. We were only able to realise this growth thanks to a strong team and the cooperation with Jan Ollevier and Vendis Capital. The covid pandemic caused exponential growth, which meant the supply chain could not always keep up in various areas. However, as a retail organisation, we are now ready for further growth of our brands. I therefore thank everyone for their continued contribution and belief in this great growth story. I am also convinced that, with Jan as shareholder, we have an experienced captain on board who, through his strategic insight and knowledge of the market, can guide Beliving to a new milestone.

Jan Ollevier: “I thank Vendis Capital for the good cooperation over the past years. We will continue the partnership as joint shareholders of X2O Bathrooms.”

Michiel Deturck, Partner at Vendis Capital, added: “We are pleased – and also a little proud – to have been able to support Jan Ollevier and the management team in transforming the company into a modern international omni-channel retailer.
We thank the entire team that has contributed to this and wish them a great continued success.