In August 2014, ARX together with two managers completed the 100% acquisition of Anwis, which is a Polish manufacturer of internal and external custom-made sun shading systems. The company is the leading Polish producer of custom-made interior window coverings and one of the leading manufacturers of window covering related components in Europe. The company’s offer includes dozens of products within own and third-party interior and exterior systems, including horizontal, vertical, roller and pleated blinds.

Anwis was founded in 1979 by a young engineer and entrepreneur from Wloclawek, which is a medium sized Polish city, who then successfully developed the business over a number of decades. After many years of successful development of the company, the founder – who had reached retirement age – concluded that selling Anwis to an experienced investor could accelerate the growth and strategic development of Anwis in a number of areas including international sales expansion. ARX was selected by the founder as the preferred investor to realize the next phase of growth of Anwis, and acquired the company in 2014.

ARX provided the desired exit to the founding owner and formulated a clear strategic plan with the intention to leverage the company’s technical capabilities, strong domestic market position, wide product range and advanced internet-based ordering solutions in order to grow and internationalise the business.

The ARX deal team took an active, hands-on role in monitoring Anwis and contributing to the value creation process. This strategy positioned the company to benefit from the fast growth of the e-commerce sector in key export markets including Germany and the Netherlands. Over the past five years, Anwis has retained its profit margins, while consistently growing sales and more than doubling workforce headcount.

Since the date of the initial ARX investment, Anwis has:

• Enhanced the Anwis leadership team with dynamic and growth-oriented managers,
• Strengthened the company’s market leadership in the traditional channel in Poland while entering the e-commerce channel in Germany and Netherlands,
• Grown scale, improved efficiency, renewed the product portfolio, developed innovative new products, and modernised production capabilities, and
• Consistently grown sales and more than doubled the employee base while maintaining high profit margins.

In mid 2019 Anwis was sold to a German strategic investor (Warema), while generating an attractive investment return for ARX and its partners.