Fiege becomes heyconnect’s largest shareholder
Greven/Hamburg, 15th July 2022 – The Fiege Group has increased its holding in heyconnect GmbH to over 90 percent. This makes the family-owned company from Greven in Westphalia the largest shareholder of the Hamburg-based specialist for online marketplaces. The founders Marcel Brindöpke and Florian Curdt will remain on board as managing directors.
“By increasing our share, we are paving the way for further growth and a successful future for heyconnect. Given the increasing importance of online marketplaces in both the B2C and B2B sectors, we will continue to invest significantly in heyconnect in order to become Europe’s leading omnichannel provider”, explains Christoph Mangelmans, Managing Director at Fiege in the Digital Services business unit.
In recent years and after Fiege’s entry in February 2020, heyconnect has grown rapidly. The team of around 150 employees has brought more than 300 brand manufacturers and retailers, particularly from the fashion, living and cosmetics sectors, to around 50 online marketplaces – including Amazon, About You, Zalando and Otto. This year, heyconnect is generating external sales of around 170 million euros with all of its customers.
“We are very pleased that Fiege is continuing to invest in heyconnect ten years after it was founded, thereby enabling us to expand our proven business model. On the one hand, this ensures further digitalisation towards largely automated processes. On the other hand, we can utilise Fiege’s logistics infrastructure and network even more intensively to grow internationally and diversify in terms of industries”, explains Florian Curdt, Co-founder and Manging Director.
Thanks to the high traffic, online marketplaces offer a decisive advantage for manufacturers and retailers a decisive advantage in terms of being found by their target group. However, managing the various platforms requires special expertise, as Co-founder and Managng Director Marcel Brindöpke explains: “Over the years, we have built up a close relationship with major players such as Otto, Zalando and About You. This allows us to react quickly to changing requirements and optimise brand placement. As a central interface for all platforms, heyconnect is the ideal partner for utilising marketplaces as a long-term business model.”
Topics such as retail media and social commerce are also playing an increasingly important role, says Brindöpke: “In addition to marketplace integration and partner develpment as the core, we offer logistics, platform marketing and content creation – all from a single source. We also offer our customers other relevant marketplace services. Togehter with Fiege, we enable our customers to closely integrate all sales channels so that consumers receive their goods with the same level of quality and service.”
Press contact
Tobias Jöhren
Fiege
Pressesprecher
Joan-Joseph-Fiege-Straße 1
48268 Greven
Phone: +49 171 1947268
Mail to: tobias.joehren@fiege.com