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. This dependency is often the result of founder excellence, not organisational failure. Expecting all of it 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, one that gives the founder greater choice over the role he wants to play.
This is not a turnaround. It is a transition.
The best successor to an exceptional founder is not another indispensable person. It is an organisation capable of succeeding without one.
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.
Succession should create a longer horizon for investment, innovation and development. Together, we strengthen the cornerstone business by expanding its commercial reach, developing new capabilities and building partnerships around what it already does exceptionally well.
Leadership, governance and organisational depth are strengthened so that the founder’s standards and judgement become part of the organisation. The objective is not to make the company more corporate. It is to make excellence repeatable.
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.
The Alpine region, including Austria, Switzerland, Southern Germany, Eastern France and Northern Italy.
Typically €1–5 million EBITDA.
Founder- or family-owned.
Precision engineering, specialist manufacturing, industrial technology, automation, testing & inspection, and mission-critical industrial services.
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.
For us, innovation begins with a real operating or customer problem. It builds outward from the knowledge, reputation and capabilities already inside the business.
The objective is to create the conditions in which engineers, operators and leaders can continue improving the business long after the founder has stepped back.
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. Those different backgrounds widen what we can see, but experience must be translated to the business rather than imposed upon it. A shared commitment to long-term ownership shapes how we work with founders and their trusted advisers.
Hannes Offenbacher
Hannes has spent nearly two decades working with founders and management teams on strategy, innovation, growth and communication.
He founded Wemorrow in Vienna in 2007, and his work through Studio Innomare has combined strategic analysis with collaborative creativity to turn ideas into practical initiatives. He has also served on the board of TechnoGate Tyrol.
At Graculus, Hannes focuses on identifying opportunities close to the company’s core, connecting different perspectives and helping teams build the capability to carry ideas into practice.
Gerhard Botha
Gerhard has more than two decades of experience across professional services, investment banking, private capital and company building. He began his career at PwC before moving to Rand Merchant Bank (RMB).
During his career at RMB, he advised founders, entrepreneurs and investors on more than $8 billion of completed acquisitions, capital raisings and other strategic transactions across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He also established the firm’s Private Capital Advisory business.
Alongside his advisory career, he co-founded and helped build technology businesses, including Gyzer, a payments platform that was later acquired by a US public company. At Graculus, he focuses on succession, ownership, capital and building a stronger organisation beyond the founder.
Tristan Louette
Tristan combines operational, investment and entrepreneurial experience across hospitality, asset management and technology businesses.
After beginning his career in hospitality, he spent nine years at Gaw Capital, contributing to the acquisition and management of more than US$2.5 billion of assets across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. He later founded and operated technology businesses of his own.
At Graculus, Tristan focuses on operating discipline, governance and management systems that make excellence repeatable without introducing unnecessary corporate complexity.
Why One Successor Is Rarely Enough
Founder succession is not simply about replacing one leader. It is about transferring knowledge, relationships and judgement into a stronger organisation.
View all resourcesEvery 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.