expErienceS

The examples of Cooper and Ducros Express illustrate CARAVELLE’s capacity to put back distressed businesses on a sound and long-lasting profitable growth track.

COOPER

In 2000, CARAVELLE took over Cooper, a pharmaceutical company focusing mostly on OTC drugs, from the Aventis group. The company was loosing 22M€ per year, with revenues in constant decline.

CARAVELLE led the turnaround and implemented a strategy focused on pharmacists. The turnaround effort also included refocusing the product portfolio on proprietary products, remobilizing the sales force, modernizing structures, and fundamentally reviewing the logistic systems. A year after, Cooper was restructured and could then start growing again on a sound basis, thanks to innovating products.

Cooper is now considered as one of the pharmaceutical companies most appreciated by pharmacists. The company has been profit-making since 2001 and revenues have reached more than180M€ in 2010.

DUCROS EXPRESS

In 2010, CARAVELLE acquired from DHL Deutsche Post its French domestic parcels business, renamed Ducros Express. This business had been making heavy losses for many years and was not a core business for Deutsche Post anymore, the group wanting to refocus on express services.
After a careful examination of the several candidates willing to take over Ducros, Deutsche Post chose CARAVELLE as the acquirer most likely to succeed in putting Ducros Express back on a profitable growth track, taking account of the consistency of its industrial project, of the proven competences of the managerial team in the parcels business, of CARAVELLE’s unique track record in turnaround and of its sound financial structure.

Today, Ducros Express’s restructuring is in keeping with the business plan. Clients’ confidence has been maintained and Ducros Express has kept its positioning as the third network of parcels transportation in France.

In the coming years, Ducros Express intends to further strengthen its positioning on a concentrating market.