Sale De Buurtboer to Albron

Yuno Advisors advised the founders of De Buurtboer – a delivery-based corporate catering company with a focus on ‘fresh’ and ‘local’ – with the sale to Albron, one of the largest foodservice organisations of the Netherlands.

De Buurtboer (www.debuurtboer.nl) was founded in 2010 by Caroline van der Lande and Nikki Wiesman. With an entirely new ‘subscription based’ delivery model for lunches with a focus on fresh, artisinal and local produce, De Buurtboer emerged as a pioneer in the corporate catering market. Until the Covid outbreak the company showed strong year-on-year growth, and already reached the milestone of 1 million lunches per year in 2016. The company has its headquarters in Amsterdam, and services its customers from two distribution centres in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. De Buurtboer’s target audience consists of companies in the range of 10 – 200 employees located in the conurbation of Western Holland. The company counts the majority of its customers in the creative industry, Tech and services segments. By means of a proprietary developed software tool using algorithms, the lunch is defined based on customer profiling and preferences, including daily variation and preventing food waste. Prior to Covid, the customer base of De Buurtboer consisted of more than 250 clients, of which the majority has remained as customer.

As one of the largest foodservice organisations in the Netherlands, Albron has its roots as catering company ‘avant-la-lettre’ with the foundation of canteens of the Volksbond (‘People’s union’) in the harbour of Rotterdam at the end of the 19th century. In 1997 Albron originated from the merger between BRN and Service One Catering, and then became the largest independent catering company of the Netherlands under the wings of a foundation. In subsequent years, Albron has gradually broadened its profile into an integral foodservice company, offering food and drinks on all locations where people study, work, are underway, having leisure activities or receive care. This is manifest from the broad presence as catering company for corporates and hospitals, but also the horeca offering in all Center Parcs locations as well as the partnerships with street brands such as Starbucks, Anne & Max and Le Perron. With the acquisition of De Buurtboer, Albron further strengthens its portfolio as foodservice organisation, offering its customers a more complete and flexible offering suited for this timer period.

Yuno Advisors acted as exclusive advisor to the founder-shareholders of De Buurtboer in the entire sale process. Our advisory consisted of general project coordination, realisation of a letter of intent, due diligence, structuring of the transaction and deal negotiations.

Click here for the original press release (in Dutch) from Albron.