M&A Awards 2026: Foreman Capital acquires a majority stake in The Royal NNZ Group (Best Deal Mid-Market 2026)

Brief description deal / Deal outline  

The Royal NNZ Group is an international packaging company founded in Groningen in 1922 by Marinus Boot. It supplies packaging solutions to growers, packers and food producers in agriculture and to industrial customers, and serves customers in Europe, North America and other markets through its own subsidiaries. After more than 104 years and four generations of family ownership, the Boot family chose Foreman Capital as the first external shareholder in the company’s history. 

Foreman Capital acquired a majority stake following a short and competitive process in which strategic buyers and Dutch and international private equity firms participated. The Boot family and the management team, led by CEO Ronald Hoozemans, reinvested substantially, and former CEO Len Boot chairs the company’s new Advisory Board. The investment will fund the next phase of growth, focusing on inventory and logistics, digital transformation and artificial intelligence, commercial development, international expansion and acquisitions. 

https://www.nnz.nl/media/famil... 

Why should this deal win the Award for Best Deal Mid-Cap 2026?   

Royal NNZ Group is not a typical deal. After more than 104 years of continuous ownership by the Boot family, this was a transaction with deep emotional as well as financial stakes. The family describes NNZ as “not only a family-owned company, but above all a company with a family”. Its guiding objective was clear: to secure a sustainable, profitable future for the company while keeping intact the values on which it was built over more than a century. 

With Len Boot, the third generation, having no family successor, the company first appointed a professional management team and then mandated Nielen Schuman to run a selected auction. The process attracted strong interest from strategic buyers and private equity, and evaluating both in parallel created the competitive tension that enabled a superior valuation outcome. Less than six months passed between the start of preparations and signing. 

Foreman Capital was ultimately selected not simply on price, but on fit. As an independent investment firm with a strong track record in primary buyouts of family-owned businesses, Foreman understood what it means to take over a company where family values are embedded in the culture. In the family’s words, they found in Foreman “a partner who shares our long-term vision, respects our culture”. The structure reflects that partnership: the family reinvested and keeps a meaningful stake, Len Boot chairs the new Advisory Board and the management team invested alongside Foreman. 

NNZ was not a fully ‘finished’ asset being sold at a peak. At the outset, the company operated at an EBITDA margin of only around 3%. Together with management, a credible operational improvement plan was built, and the first results were already captured before launch. Positioning this transition story credibly to a competitive buyer universe, while still achieving a superior valuation, was a core part of the advisory challenge. 

Execution was demanding. With subsidiaries in Europe, North America and Africa, due diligence covered the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Canada and the United States, and financial, ESG, commercial, tax and legal advisers completed their work within a few weeks inside the exclusivity period. The financing also called for creativity: NNZ’s working capital peaks around the harvest season, which coincided with closing. Together with incumbent lenders Rabobank and Investec, the parties found a solution that gave the family certainty at signing, and the family also financed part of the purchase price itself. The parties signed in July and closed at the end of August 2026. 

Every goal the family set at the outset was achieved: a sustainable and profitable future for the company, continuity of the business and its people, preservation of its values and culture, continued family involvement through an appropriately sized roll-over and deal economics fully in line with expectations. As Maxime Rosset of Foreman Capital puts it, NNZ is “an exceptional company with a rich heritage”. This deal protects that heritage and prepares a 104-year-old family company for its next chapter. 

What is the impact of this deal for the company?   

For the first time in its history, NNZ has an external shareholder, giving the company the financial strength and strategic partner it needs to accelerate. The investment goes into inventory and logistics, digital transformation and AI, commercial development and international expansion, while supporting NNZ’s ongoing professionalisation and improvement of profitability. With Foreman as a partner, NNZ can also take an active role in the consolidation of the fragmented European packaging distribution market. 

The newly established Advisory Board, chaired by Len Boot, brings deep experience in packaging distribution and agriculture. All of this builds on what has made the company successful for over a century: an entrepreneurial culture, committed people and close relationships with customers. 

What is the impact of this deal for the direct stakeholders?   

The Boot family has secured the future of the company it built over four generations without stepping away from it. Through the roll-over, the family remains a shareholder, stays involved through the Advisory Board and will share in the value created in the years ahead, meeting both its financial and emotional goals for the transition. 

The management team, led by CEO Ronald Hoozemans, invested alongside Foreman and now has the backing to carry out an ambitious plan. Employees continue to work within the same culture and values, with a shareholder willing to invest in growth, systems and people. Customers and suppliers keep the same trusted partner, now better equipped to invest in service, logistics and sustainable products. For Foreman Capital, NNZ is an attractive platform investment, closely aligned with its strategy of primary buyouts in founder- and family-led businesses. 

What is the impact of this deal on society?   

NNZ’s packaging plays a quiet but important role in the food chain. It helps growers, packers and food producers store and transport fresh produce such as potatoes, onions and citrus fruit, so that less of it goes to waste. The company is well prepared for the new European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation and is steadily expanding its range of recycled and recyclable products, a move that Foreman’s investment will accelerate. 

The deal also keeps a company with deep roots in Groningen headquartered in the northern Netherlands, where it has been an employer for more than a hundred years. More broadly, it shows how family businesses facing succession can secure their long-term future through a private equity partnership with the right cultural fit, without sacrificing the values and continuity that made them successful. 

What was most complex about this deal?   

After 104 years of family ownership, opening the company to an outside shareholder called for patience, openness and a structure in which the family could stay involved. The Boot family spans multiple generations, and family members held different views on their desired level of involvement and reinvestment, ranging from a full exit to remaining closely engaged. Aligning them around a single, coherent transaction structure had to be managed sensitively and in parallel with the commercial process, without slowing the timeline. 

A second complexity was the starting profitability. With an EBITDA margin of around 3%, well below what most private equity investors would consider investable, the business had to be transformed into a credible, competitively bid asset through an operational improvement plan with tangible early results. 

On top of that came the practical complexity of an international business: due diligence and contracts covered five countries, each with its own rules on tax, employment and real estate, all within a short exclusivity period. The financing added a further layer, as working capital peaks coincided with closing and lenders were cautious. Together with the banks and the family, the parties found a solution that gave everyone certainty at signing and completed the deal on schedule.

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