Scope Capital gets 50% of Happy Socks

Happy Socks, a Sweden-based clothing manufacturer and retailer, announced that the growth equity fund, Scope, and Industrial Advisor, Jonas Meerits, have become new shareholders in the company. The fund's first target with founders Mikael Söderlindh and Viktor Tell, who retain ownership, is to double the sales figures in 2015.

Happy Socks was founded in 2008 by CEO Mikael Söderlindh and Creative Director Viktor Tell. The company rapidly grew into a strong brand in a category that they have led the way in creating, that of colourful socks and underwear.

With physical distribution in around 70 countries and 8,000 outlets the world over, sales in 2014 reached SEK 125 million, equivalent to SEK 600 million in retail value. The growth rate for the past three years has averaged 70 per cent per annum. The company has a strong global e-commerce and last December was nominated for the Digital Gasell Award by Di and Google.

"Things have just rocketed since day one and we've had to keep developing the company to meet the strong growth. Victor and I, together with the other partners, felt it was time to change the ownership structure to take us to the next level as one of the large Swedish fashion companies. The partnership with Jonas and Scope will bring the company into a new phase while building on the success story together. This is a highly charged infusion for us who fought hard to get where we are today,” says CEO Mikael Söderlindh.

The original partners in Happy Socks remain as owners. As well as the founders, the group includes Jonas Mårtensson, CEO Mojang, Jens Berlips, CEO and owner of ApoEx, the 2014 Super Gasell Award winner, and Mathias Berggren, Partner in DLA Nordic. The latter two remain on the board of directors.

New Chairman of the Board and co-investor will be Jonas Meerits, previously CEO at J.Lindeberg and currently industrial advisor at Scope, board member at Ellos and partner in Klättermusen.