Former Ontex CEO invests in online diapers

Bart Van Malderen, former CEO of Belgian diaper producer Ontex, is not only competing against his former company with his own Drylock, but has become the biggest shareholder of German diaper webshop Lillydoo.

Main shareholder

Van Malderen is the main shareholder of Lillydoo through his investment vehicle VM Invest, owning 19.4 % of the shares. He entered the company three years ago and is in the board of directors. “So far, that investment has remained under the radar“, Belgian businessnewspaper De Tijd found out.

Lillydoo was founded in 2015 by a number of former managers of Procter & Gamble (Pampers). Turnover was just below 2 million euros in its first year, but that has risen to 40 million in 2018 en is scheduled to double again this year. Now the company sells its diapers in all German-speaking countries, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. “In the first two years, Lillydoo suffered losses, but it is unclear if that was still the case last year”, the business paper reports. Interesting detail: Lillydoo’s biggest supplier is Van Malderen’s company Drylock.

Van Malderen sold diaper manufacturer Ontex in 2002 and left the group in 2007 under a non-competition clause. When that clause ended in 2012, he founded Drylock Technologies: the diaper manufacturer, specialised in ultra-thin cellulose-free diapers, now has eight factories (including in the United States and South America). Thanks to over 2,500 employees, the company now has a turnover of almost 400 million euros.