maconda advises Argos Wityu on an investment in the global market leader for inflatable water parks
maconda News October 2018
maconda has prepared a comprehensive Commercial Due Diligence for Wibit Sports GmbH. Wibit is the world’s leading provider of inflatable water parks for coastal waters, lakes, and indoor pools. The client was Argos Wityu, a pan-European investment company with a German team based in Frankfurt am Main. In October, Wibit successfully secured the investor as a strategic partner.
Floating water parks from Wibit do not only offer plenty of fun for visitors. Thanks to short payback periods, they represent an extremely attractive investment for their operators. The company, based in Bocholt near the Dutch border, produces these aquatic worlds of fun from robust, inflatable PVC modules. These adventure courses are a major draw in coastal waters, on lakes, and in outdoor and indoor pools. Wibit facilities enjoy great popularity in around 90 countries, for example in holiday paradises such as Dubai, Croatia, or Cancún in Mexico. In this growth industry, which it founded itself, Wibit is now the undisputed global market leader. With Argos Wityu as its new strategic partner, the company intends to accelerate its international growth, diversify its business areas, and make its products even more attractive.
Argos Wityu entrusted the team at the consulting boutique maconda with the Commercial Due Diligence – after all, the Cologne-based experts had already been successfully deployed by the investment company on several occasions. The particular challenge of the task: Wibit’s market is growing dynamically in most regions but is still quite young. Accordingly, the database is relatively thin. It was therefore necessary to explore the growth potential in numerous important tourism regions. The Cologne consulting experts focused particularly on Asia, especially China.
As a specialist in niche markets, maconda developed a smart market model fed by a wide variety of sources. To build a sound database, the Cologne consultants conducted around 100 focus interviews worldwide: for example, with wholesalers, tourism associations, hotel resort chains, water park operators, and competitors. In combination with various structural, climate, and tourism data, as well as data from related ‘proxy markets’ used for approximation, the maconda analysts created a meaningful scoring model and a ranking of potential growth regions. In this way, they assessed attractiveness, degree of saturation, and growth dynamics in various sales regions.
In a strategy workshop with Wibit management, the maconda experts outlined and discussed various growth paths. The goal is clearly set: to consolidate sustainable differentiation from competitors and further expand Wibit’s market-leading position. As a partner to Argos Wityu, the Cologne consulting boutique has thus created a solid foundation for Wibit’s international growth.