Storskogen

Storskogen is a Swedish corporate group built on a decentralized, acquisition-driven model. It was founded in 2012 by Daniel Kaplan and a small group of partners, and grew rapidly by acquiring profitable, often family-owned small and mid-sized companies in Northern Europe and the German-speaking region. Rather than integrating acquired firms into a single operating structure, Storskogen keeps them as autonomous subsidiaries, providing capital, governance and long-term ownership while leaving day-to-day management in place. The group organizes its portfolio into three business areas: Trade, Industry and Services. Trade covers distribution and wholesale of goods such as building materials, industrial components and consumer products; Industry covers manufacturing and niche industrial production; Services covers business and technical services, installation and maintenance. This diversification spreads risk across sectors and geographies, and the model is designed to let founders and family owners sell while preserving the culture of their businesses. Storskogen became one of Sweden's most closely watched growth stories of the late 2010s and early 2020s. It listed its Class B shares on Nasdaq Stockholm in 2021, which gave it access to public capital to continue acquisitions and made it a large-cap company by market value at the time. The group has since faced a more challenging environment of higher interest rates, which raised the cost of its debt-funded acquisition strategy and prompted a greater focus on cash flow, deleveraging and operational improvement rather than pure deal volume. Today Storskogen presents itself as a long-term owner of a large portfolio of decentralized businesses, with a strategy centered on acquiring profitable companies with strong market positions, keeping management in place and growing both organically and through add-on acquisitions. Its brand identity rests on the idea of being a permanent home for entrepreneurial companies rather than a short-term financial buyer.

Storskogen was founded in 2012 in Sweden by Daniel Kaplan together with a small group of partners. The founding idea was to build a decentralized group that acquires profitable, well-run small and mid-sized companies and holds them for the long term, letting founders and family owners exit while the businesses keep their names, cultures and management teams. The name Storskogen refers to a Swedish forest area, evoking durability and long-term thinking. Through the mid-2010s the group grew by acquiring companies primarily in Sweden and neighboring Nordic markets, later expanding into the German-speaking region and other parts of Europe. Acquisitions were typically financed with a combination of equity and debt, and the group structured itself around three business areas — Trade, Industry and Services — to organize a growing and diverse portfolio. In 2021 Storskogen listed its Class B shares on Nasdaq Stockholm. The listing was one of the largest in Sweden that year and gave the group public currency for further acquisitions, while also broadening its shareholder base. At its peak the company was valued as a large-cap and became a widely followed case study in the acquisition-driven compounder model. The subsequent period of rising interest rates and tighter capital markets changed the picture. Higher financing costs made debt-funded acquisitions more expensive, and the group shifted emphasis toward cash flow generation, debt reduction and operational development of existing subsidiaries. Management has continued to pursue add-on acquisitions selectively while presenting Storskogen as a long-term, responsible owner focused on sustainable value creation across its portfolio.

• 2021

  Class B shares listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.

• 2012

  Storskogen founded in Sweden by Daniel Kaplan and partners.

A long-term, decentralized owner of profitable Nordic and European SMEs, positioned as a permanent home for entrepreneurial companies rather than a short-term financial buyer.

Product categories. Acquired small and mid-sized operating companies · Distribution and wholesale businesses · Industrial manufacturing units · Technical and business services

1. 1Storskogen official websitestorskogen.com
2. 2Storskogen acquires laboratory analytics provider Duratecchemeurope.com