{"id":90463,"date":"2026-11-15T21:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-15T21:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aventis-advisors.com\/?p=90463"},"modified":"2026-11-15T21:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-11-15T21:53:17","slug":"normec-acquisitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aventis-advisors.com\/pl\/normec-acquisitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Normec Acquisitions: What It Buys and What It Pays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Normec is a Dutch testing, inspection and certification (TIC) group, co-founded by its chief executive Joep Bruins and owned since 2020 by the private equity firm Astorg. Since 2017 it has made 59 TIC acquisitions, most of them in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, buying food and environmental testing labs, life sciences labs, certification bodies, inspection firms and building fire safety specialists. It has not published what it paid for any of them. Our research gives the guide. Small TIC firms like the ones it buys sold at a median of 8.0x EBITDA in deals under $50M (21 deals), against 9.9x for TIC deals of every size (54 deals).<\/p>\n

Normec sometimes buys only part of a firm. In three UK deals in 2024 it took a majority, so its offer to you may be for part of your firm. The firms it buys move onto its systems and, in time, take its name.<\/p>\n

Normec Group Companies and Divisions<\/h2>\n

Bruins runs Normec from Amsterdam. He founded it with Marco Zomer and Martje Princen, and the group began with their purchase of Eerland Certification in Geldermalsen. Summit Partners invested at the end of 2017, and Astorg agreed to buy the group from Summit in June 2020, with management investing alongside. Astorg is still the owner. In July 2024 it moved Normec into a continuation fund, a new fund it manages with money from new investors, in which Normec’s leadership also invested.<\/p>\n

Normec works in 12 countries, by its own count in September 2026, and its website lists more than 160 locations. The group has six business units: Certification, Environmental Testing, Foodcare, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Inspections and Training. A firm Normec buys joins the unit for its trade, so a food lab goes to Foodcare and a pharmaceutical lab to Healthcare & Life Sciences. Two parts of the group make acquisitions themselves, the Foodcare unit, which has added food labs and food quality firms, and Normec Abiolab, a French lab group that joined in 2022.<\/p>\n

How Many Companies Normec Acquires, and What Size<\/h2>\n

In our data Normec made at least 14 acquisitions in 2024, more than in any earlier year, and at least 11 in 2025.<\/p>\n

Normec acquisitions per year<\/text>TIC acquisitions in our data, 2017 to 2025; each year is a minimum<\/text>0<\/text>5<\/text>10<\/text>15<\/text>3<\/text>2017<\/text>4<\/text>2018<\/text>3<\/text>2019<\/text>4<\/text>2020<\/text>6<\/text>2021<\/text>5<\/text>2022<\/text>7<\/text>2023<\/text>14<\/text>2024<\/text>11<\/text>2025<\/text>At least four deals Normec announced in late 2025 are not yet in our data.<\/text><\/svg>
\u0179r\u00f3d\u0142o: baza transakcji TIC Aventis Advisors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On size, the public guide comes from Bruins himself. He told MenA.nl, the Dutch M&A news site, in December 2020 that the companies Normec had bought had between 10 and 150 staff and that it put “no energy into start-ups” (our translation from Dutch).<\/p>\n

What Normec Buys and Where<\/h2>\n

Food accounts for 15 of Normec’s 59 purchases, more than any other trade, but it has bought in every part of TIC.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Bran\u017ca<\/th>\nPrzej\u0119cia<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Food testing<\/a> and food safety: food, cosmetics and feed labs, produce inspection, sampling and quality control<\/td>\n15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Badania \u015brodowiskowe<\/a>, water and hygiene: legionella and drinking water testing, environmental labs, doradztwo BHP<\/a><\/td>\n11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Life sciences and healthcare: pharmaceutical testing<\/a> and medical device labs, clean-air validation, pharmaceutical quality services<\/td>\n11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Certyfikacja<\/a>: management systems, product conformity, emissions verification and other schemes<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Industrial and electrical inspection: inspekcje wymagane prawem<\/a>, electrical testing<\/a> and safety equipment, non-destructive testing (NDT)<\/a><\/td>\n8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Building fire safety<\/a> and compliance inspection<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>
\u0179r\u00f3d\u0142o: baza transakcji TIC Aventis Advisors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No buyer has made more TIC acquisitions in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany taken together: Normec has made 38 there, against 32 for Eurofins Scientific<\/a>. It started at home, with 21 of its first 25 deals in the Netherlands and Belgium. Of the 34 since 2023, only 8 were. It entered the UK in May 2023 and has bought seven firms in Germany since then, against two before. In August 2025 it bought its first three labs in the United States, and in 2026 it added another there and its first in Italy.<\/p>\n

Where Normec buys<\/text>59 TIC acquisitions since 2017, by country of the firm bought<\/text>Holandia<\/text>21<\/text>Wielka Brytania<\/text>11<\/text>Niemcy<\/text>9<\/text>Belgia<\/text>8<\/text>Francja<\/text>4<\/text>Stany Zjednoczone<\/text>4<\/text>Szwajcaria<\/text>1<\/text>W\u0142ochy<\/text>1<\/text><\/svg>
Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database. Dark: the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What Normec Pays: Acquisition Multiples<\/h2>\n

Buyers price a TIC firm as a multiple of its EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), the yearly profit they work from. At 8.0x, each $1M of EBITDA is worth $8M of enterprise value (EV). That is the value of the whole business; the owner repays any debt from it and keeps the rest.<\/p>\n

We would expect firms of 10 to 150 staff, the range Bruins gave in 2020, to sell in deals under $50M, the smallest band in our analizie wycen TIC<\/a>. That band holds firms with up to about $6M of EBITDA, and its median is 8.0x EBITDA (21 deals).<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/th>\nMno\u017cnik EBITDA<\/th>\nmno\u017cnik Revenue<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
TIC deals under $50M, median<\/td>\n8.0x (21 deals)<\/td>\n1.52x (80 deals)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wszystkie transakcje TIC, mediana<\/td>\n9,9x (54 transakcje)<\/td>\n1,8x (142 transakcje)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
TIC deals of $500M and over, median<\/td>\n12.2x (11 deals)<\/td>\n2.15x (15 deals)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>
Source: Aventis Advisors TIC valuation research.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At 8.0x EBITDA, a firm earning a 15% margin sells for 1.2x revenue. At a 20% margin the same multiple gives 1.6x. A revenue multiple tells you little until you know the margin.<\/p>\n

Small TIC firms sell for a lower multiple than large ones: 8.0x EBITDA in deals under $50M against 12.2x in deals of $500M and over. A sale of Normec itself would sit in that top band, since it put a value of more than $2.1 billion on the whole group in 2024. We think the gap is one reason Normec and groups like it keep buying small firms. When several of them bid for the same firm, part of the gap can go to the owner.<\/p>\n

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Ile jest warta Twoja firma?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prze\u015blij nam trzy liczby: przychody, EBITDA i tempo wzrostu przychod\u00f3w. W ci\u0105gu dw\u00f3ch dni roboczych poufnie poka\u017cemy Ci, jak Twoja firma wypada na tle 2841 transakcji TIC, kt\u00f3re grupy nabywc\u00f3w przejmowa\u0142y firmy podobne do Twojej i jak ewentualna oferta, kt\u00f3r\u0105 masz, wypada w por\u00f3wnaniu z tym, ile zap\u0142aci\u0142y, tam gdzie warunki s\u0105 publiczne.<\/p>\n

Zam\u00f3w analiz\u0119 wyceny<\/a> lub wy\u015blij liczby e-mailem na adres marcin.majewski@aventis-advisors.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How Normec Structures a Deal<\/h2>\n

Normec publishes no deal terms and has no page for sellers. None of its announcements mentions an earn-out or a deferred payment. The stakes it took in its UK deals are on record in its filings there.<\/p>\n

The 2024 accounts of Normec Holding UK Limited, filed at Companies House, show that it owned all of the three UK groups it bought in 2023. A note on events after the year end says it also bought the whole of the two firms its UK company acquired in 2025. In three UK deals in 2024 it bought between 70% and 88%. At one of them the founder is still registered as holding more than a quarter of the shares. How and when Normec buys the rest is not public.<\/p>\n

If Normec buys 70% of a firm, the cash you receive at closing is for that 70%. What the other 30% is worth depends on what the agreement says about when you can sell it, to whom and at what value, and until then you hold a minority in a firm Normec controls. To compare Normec’s offer with another, add the cash at closing to what those terms make your 30% worth.<\/p>\n

Co dzieje si\u0119 po zamkni\u0119ciu transakcji<\/h2>\n

“We do put everyone on the cloud, you have to go on as one brand,” Bruins told MenA.nl in December 2020 (our translation from Dutch). He said in the same interview that when Normec bought a German lab, the staff were handed a 25-page booklet explaining why Normec had bought the lab, who runs the group and what would change for each of them.<\/p>\n

The name goes later. At least 33 of the 59 firms now trade as “Normec” followed by their old name. Where we can date the change, it came between a few months and nearly three years after the deal. Of the 21 firms bought since August 2024, 13 still trade under their own names. That may not last. Normec’s releases on two German labs bought in 2025 said the brand would continue “initially”.<\/p>\n

In 16 of the 54 deals we have a source for, the announcement or the seller’s advisor says the founder or managers stayed on; in the others the sources do not say. In the 2020 interview Bruins said Normec had never dismissed anyone after an acquisition.<\/p>\n

Normec’s Competitors for Your Company<\/h2>\n

Which groups compete with Normec for your firm depends on what it does and where it is. In the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, where Normec has made most of its acquisitions, the rivals most like it are the other TIC groups backed by private equity, chiefly Certania and Sansidor. Sansidor has made all 25 of its deals there.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Nabywca<\/th>\nW\u0142a\u015bciciel<\/th>\nTIC deals in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany since 2015<\/th>\nDeals in trades Normec also buys<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Eurofins Scientific<\/a><\/td>\nNotowany<\/td>\n32<\/td>\nFood 16, environmental 8, life sciences 6, industrial inspection 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Certania<\/td>\nPrivate equity (Greenpeak, Summit Partners)<\/td>\n30<\/td>\nEnvironmental 9, certification 7, life sciences 6, industrial inspection 4, food 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sansidor<\/td>\nPrivate equity (IK Partners)<\/td>\n25<\/td>\nIndustrial inspection 12, environmental 7, building inspection 6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kiwa<\/a><\/td>\nFirma rodzinna (SHV)<\/td>\n23<\/td>\nCertification 12, industrial inspection 3, food 2, building inspection 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SOCOTEC<\/a><\/td>\nPrivate equity (Cobepa)<\/td>\n16<\/td>\nBuilding inspection 15, industrial inspection 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
GBA Group<\/td>\nPrivate equity (Ardian; Bridgepoint agreed July 2026)<\/td>\n12<\/td>\nEnvironmental 7, life sciences 3, food 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SGS<\/a><\/td>\nNotowany<\/td>\n11<\/td>\nFood 4, environmental 2, certification 2, building inspection 1, life sciences 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tentamus Group<\/a><\/td>\nPrivate equity (BC Partners)<\/td>\n11<\/td>\nFood 5, life sciences 5, environmental 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
TUV Rheinland<\/td>\nW\u0142asno\u015b\u0107 stowarzyszenia<\/td>\n9<\/td>\nEnvironmental 5, certification 1, food 1, industrial inspection 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
TUV Austria<\/td>\nW\u0142asno\u015b\u0107 stowarzyszenia<\/td>\n8<\/td>\nIndustrial inspection 6, certification 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>
Source: Aventis Advisors TIC deal database. Each buyer’s deals are counted under its owner today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the UK, where Normec has bought since 2023, the most active buyers are Phenna Group<\/a>, Celnor and SOCOTEC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An owner who answers Normec’s approach alone sells at its price and on its terms. We run a competitive process among the TIC groups, private equity platforms and other buyers with a real reason to want your firm, Normec among them, so you choose between the best offers and get the best price.<\/p>\n

Is This a Good Time to Sell to Normec?<\/h2>\n

Normec wants to buy now, and it has the money to. Like any private equity owner, Astorg aims to sell it in time for more than it paid, and Normec has grown mainly by buying smaller firms. Since mid-2020, when Astorg bought it, it has made at least 46 of its 59 acquisitions, and its staff has risen from about 1,200 to about 6,500.<\/p>\n

Astorg bought the group for about $400M in 2020, as MenA.nl reported that December, and in July 2024 Normec put its own value at more than $2.1 billion. Both figures are for the whole group, including its debt and the firms bought along the way. The continuation fund Astorg raised that July, about $1.5 billion, was meant to keep Normec buying in Europe and take it into the US. Normec’s loans since March 2024 also include a facility for acquisitions. Benjamin Cordonnier, Astorg’s chief executive, told Mergermarket in September 2024 that the European market was “still super fragmented in the geographies where Normec plays”, with “a very deep M&A runway”. No sale of the group has been reported.<\/p>\n

So Normec is a willing buyer today, with money set aside to keep buying, inside a group that will itself be sold one day. That tells you nothing about whether its offer is the best you could get.<\/p>\n

Talk to us before you reply to Normec, and before you agree a figure or sign a letter of intent. We prepare your firm for a sale and bring the buyers with a real reason to want it to the same table, and the same people stay with you through to closing. If keeping the company serves you better, we tell you so. Our Doradztwo M&A dla sp\u00f3\u0142ek TIC<\/a> wyja\u015bnia, jak pracujemy.<\/p>\n

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Zanim odpowiesz nabywcy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prze\u015blij nam trzy liczby: przychody, EBITDA i tempo wzrostu przychod\u00f3w. W ci\u0105gu dw\u00f3ch dni roboczych poufnie poka\u017cemy Ci, jak Twoja firma wypada na tle 2841 transakcji TIC, kt\u00f3re grupy nabywc\u00f3w przejmowa\u0142y firmy podobne do Twojej i jak ewentualna oferta, kt\u00f3r\u0105 masz, wypada w por\u00f3wnaniu z tym, ile zap\u0142aci\u0142y, tam gdzie warunki s\u0105 publiczne.<\/p>\n

Zam\u00f3w analiz\u0119 wyceny<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

O Aventis Advisors<\/h2>\n

Doradzamy w\u0142a\u015bcicielom przy sprzeda\u017cy firm o typowej enterprise value od 5 mln USD do 100 mln USD, jako partnerzy sieci Globalscope. Doradzamy te\u017c seryjnym nabywcom, dlatego wiemy, jak buduj\u0105 swoje oferty i gdzie zostawiaj\u0105 pole do negocjacji.<\/p>\n

Ostatnie transakcje:<\/p>\n