FIEGE largest shareholder of Heyconnect
The Fiege Group has increased its interest in heyconnect GmbH to over 90 per cent. This makes the family business from Greven in Westphalia the largest shareholder of the Hamburg-based specialist for online marketplaces. Its founders, Marcel Brindöpke and Florian Curdt will remain on board as managing directors for the long term.
“By increasing our shareholding, we are setting the course for the future growth and success of heyconnect. The growing relevance of online seller platforms for both the B2C and the B2B segment means we will continue to significantly invest in heyconnect to become Europe’s leading omnichannel provider”, so Christoph Mangelmans, Managing Director at Fiege for Digital Services.
heyconnect has grown significantly over the past years and even more so after Fiege joined in February 2020. The team of roughly 150 has launched over 300 brand manufacturers and retailers from the fashion, home & living as well as cosmetics segments on around 50 online marketplaces, including Amazon, Abou You, Zalando and Otto. heyconnect generates external sales of around 170 million euros with all customers combined this year.
“We are extremely pleased to see that Fiege continues to invest in us ten years following the formation of heyconnect, which will allow us to further grow our time-tested business model. On one hand, this will secure the ongoing digitalisation towards largely automated process flows. On the other, this allows us to tap not only the logistical infrastructure but also the network of Fiege even more intensely in order to grow internationally and step up our sector-centric diversification”, the co-founder and managing director Florian Curdt explains.
The high traffic that online marketplaces generate presents a decisive advantage for manufacturers and retailers when it comes to being found by their respective target group. However, overseeing the different platforms requires specific know-how, as Marcel Brindöpke, co-founder and managing director explains: “Over the years, we have developed a close relationship with major players such as Otto, Zalando and About You. This allows us to respond fast to changed requirements and to find the optimal placement options for brands. As a central interface for all platforms, heyconnect is the ideal partner to lastingly utilise marketplaces as a business model.”
Here too, retail media or social commerce tend to take on an ever more important role, Brindöpke adds: “Next to marketplace integration and partner development as a key component, we offer logistics, platform marketing and content generation all from just one source. Also, we offer additional relevant online marketplace services to our customers. Together with Fiege, we assist our customers in closely interlinking all sales channels so that consumers can enjoy the same level of quality and service for their merchandise.”
