With Marondo Capital, SPH AG has gained a financially strong partner for further growth. The innovative financial investor Marondo Capital is taking over the majority shareholding of the founder Peter Hartmann, who left the operational management back in 2014. Together with the company's proven management team, the partners aim to strengthen the company with new capital and develop it into the leading digitization expert for the fashion, sports and lifestyle industry.
Prof. Dr. Jochen Strähle, Dean of the Faculty of Textile & Design at Reutlingen University and international expert in the fashion industry, has been accompanying SPH AG since January 2020. Now, SPH AG and Jochen Strähle have concluded a cooperation agreement. Jochen Strähle will advise SPH AG in view of future developments in the industry and the strategic alignment of the company.
The SPH success story began even before the first presentation of the Apple I by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. In 1975, SPH founder Peter Hartmann observed how the mail order industry had already developed at an explosive rate since the post-war period. It was obvious that there were major deficits in the mail order companies' permanent dialogue with customers and that returns were inadequately processed by the mail order companies in merchandise planning and handling.
SPH AG, the leading software solution supplier in the field of Digital Transformation and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in the fashion, retail and e-commerce industry, was able to record a 20% increase in sales in 2020 compared to the same period of the previous year. During the first months of 2021, SPH was able to continue the good development from 2020. This was achieved through some new major customers who started their project with us last year as well as through new projects and many new prospective customers. Especially the fashion industry, who was hit hard by the pandemic, shows a significant need to catch up with digitalising and optimising their business processes and enterprise IT.