One exceptional business. Three complementary partners. One shared responsibility.
Exceptional industrial businesses are rarely built through one discipline alone. Graculus partners with founders to preserve what makes a business exceptional, strengthen its foundations, and build an enduring industrial group across the Alpine region.
Start a ConversationOne person should not have to replace an exceptional founder.
Over decades, founders accumulate knowledge, judgement, customer trust, technical expertise and culture that become embedded within the business. Expecting all of that to transfer to one successor is rarely realistic.
For thirty-five years, he has built a respected engineering business. It is profitable, technically excellent and supported by a capable management team.
Important decisions and customer relationships still depend on him. Retirement is becoming a reality, and there is no obvious family successor.
Nothing is broken. The company simply needs a thoughtful path into its next chapter.
This is not a turnaround. It is a transition.
The question is not who replaces the founder. It is how the business becomes stronger beyond the founder.
Three complementary partners.
One shared responsibility.
Rather than expecting one individual to replace an exceptional founder, Graculus brings together complementary capabilities organised around one cornerstone business.
The cornerstone business is helped to expand its commercial reach, develop new capabilities, build partnerships and identify opportunities that strengthen the business over the long term.
Leadership capability, governance and organisational depth are strengthened so that knowledge becomes institutional rather than individual.
We invest our own capital alongside founders and work with long-standing family office and private investor relationships that can support the cornerstone business throughout its long-term development.
The cornerstone business
One exceptional business built over decades, ready for its next chapter.
We are deliberately searching for an industrial business owned by a founder or family, with the quality, culture and potential to become the cornerstone of an enduring industrial group.
Austria, Switzerland, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Northern Italy.
Typically €1–5 million EBITDA.
Founder- or family-owned.
Engineering, manufacturing, industrial technology, automation, industrial services, testing and inspection.
Profitable, cash-generative, resilient and technically differentiated.
The founder is beginning to think about the next chapter, even if retirement is still years away.
What happens after we find the right business?
Finding the right business is only the beginning. Each stage strengthens what came before.
The strongest industrial businesses are never finished.
Each generation builds on the experience of the last, strengthening technical capability, refining manufacturing processes and solving increasingly complex problems for customers.
Continuous improvement does not happen in a separate department. It becomes part of the rhythm of the business itself, shaped by engineers, operators and leaders working together every day.
Our role is simply to help create the conditions where that work can continue for decades to come.
The people behind Graculus
Graculus is built on the belief that great industrial businesses deserve owners who understand both the responsibility of stewardship and the realities of building companies over the long term.
Our experience spans investing, operating and founding businesses across multiple industries and markets. Different backgrounds, complementary perspectives and a shared commitment to long-term ownership shape how we work with founders and their trusted advisers.
Hannes Offenbacher
Hannes has spent his career close to founder-owned businesses across the Alpine region, working alongside owners, management teams and trusted advisers through moments of transition, investment and long-term development.
His experience spans industrial and mid-market companies in Austria and neighbouring markets, where relationships are patient, decisions are considered and reputation is built over decades rather than quarters.
He is drawn to businesses where technical knowledge, quiet leadership and long-standing customer relationships have compounded over generations. His work is grounded in the practical realities of running such businesses: understanding how they operate, how their people think and what allows them to endure.
Gerhard Botha
Gerhard began his career in finance before spending more than two decades advising founders, entrepreneurs and investors on acquisitions, capital raising and business transitions across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Alongside his advisory work, he has founded and helped build technology businesses, giving him first-hand experience of growing companies from the inside rather than observing them from outside.
He believes successful succession depends on understanding how businesses actually operate: how decisions are made, how teams develop and how capability is built over time. That perspective shapes his work with founders and trusted advisers throughout the Alpine region.
Tristan Louette
Tristan has spent his career building and operating businesses, moving between entrepreneurship, investment and long-term ownership across Europe and internationally.
His early years in hospitality taught him how service, standards and people quietly determine the strength of an organisation. He later moved into investment and asset management, and went on to found and build companies of his own.
Having lived and studied in the Alpine region, he combines an operator's instinct with a long-standing connection to its industrial community. He is interested in businesses whose value lies in the discipline of their people, the quality of their work and the relationships they have built over time.
Every enduring industrial group begins with one exceptional business.
Whether you are a founder considering the future of your business or a trusted adviser supporting that journey, we welcome a confidential conversation. There is no expectation that every discussion leads to a transaction; many valuable relationships begin years before a decision is required.
Graculus is the scientific name of the Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus), a mountain bird found throughout the Alpine region. Known for thriving in demanding environments through cooperation and adaptability, it reflects the enduring, collaborative and resilient character we seek to build in industrial businesses.