Spadel launches The Source and acquires stake in Contaynor

With The Source, Spadel launches its new venture capital fund. This fund aims to make minority acquisitions in promising start-ups in the drinks and hydration sector to help them grow, thanks to support which is not only financial but also strategic.

The acquisition of shares in Contaynor is the first investment by The Source. Contaynor is a Belgian start-up specialising in the eco-friendly home delivery of drinks. It combines ease of use with sustainability and offers both traditional drinks and local or organic drinks. In the fifty or so municipalities around Brussels and Leuven, the two cities where Contaynor currently operates, the number of orders is increasing rapidly, showing that this service meets a real need among consumers.

Spadel and Contaynor share the same values

This promising start means that Contaynor’s founders are ambitious about the coming years. The start-up intends to gradually increase its operational and logistics capacities in order to expand to other locations in Belgium: first to Antwerp in early 2022, then to other major Belgian cities over the course of next year.

For us, Spadel isn’t just a financial investor, but a truly strategic partner that will bring us a vast amount of experience and expertise. We accepted Spadel’s proposal because we believe we can gain a lot from them thanks to their excellent knowledge of the drinks market and customers’ needs. And what’s more, we share the same values of respect and awareness, and the same interest in sustainable development. We were made to get on.” – Andreas Van Assche, Contayner’s co-founder

From the start, Spadel’s products, particularly the glass bottles of SPA natural mineral water, have been among the most popular drinks with Contaynor customers. This is what led Spadel’s management to very quickly become aware of the enormous potential of this new service. The philosophy of Contaynor’s founders is also perfectly in line with the values of sustainability and innovation upheld by Spadel. “Through its commitment to sustainable packaging, Spadel aims to develop ever better solutions for the planet, by reducing the quantity of plastic put on the market and by promoting returnable packaging”, says Franck Lecomte, Head of Innovation and Sustainable Growth at Spadel. “We’ve decided to support all initiatives in this direction, either internally or externally. It’s also in this spirit that we’re acquiring a stake in Contaynor.”

Other investments will follow

The acquisition of shares in Contaynor is the first investment performed by The Source.

Beyond the financial aspect, the idea behind this fund is to encourage innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship within Spadel Group. Initially, The Source will have a total amount of 10 million euros available, which it hopes to invest in different types of companies: drinks of course, but also sustainable packaging, digital, hydration solutions, recycling and anything that can improve the customer experience, as is the case for Contaynor.

“There will definitely be other acquisitions of holdings that will be finalised over the coming months. Innovation has always been at the heart of Spadel’s strategy. With The Source, we would like to go further by building relationships with companies that could impact our economic model.” – Franck Lecomte, Head of Innovation and Sustainable Growth