Action

Investment Thesis

• Grow store network within existing countries
• Expand into other European countries
• Strengthen supply chain
• Opportunity for operational enhancements

Investment Overview

Action is a European discount retailer operating in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic and Italy. Action sells more than 6,000 products across 14 retail categories (cleaning products, toiletries, office supplies, toys, garden utensils, homeware, etc.).

The Manager believes Action represents an attractive opportunity to invest in one of the fastest-growing European discount retailers with sustainable competitive advantages due to scale and surprise element for customers resulting from changing inventory (more than 60% of product range is variable with 150 new products every week). Historically the Company has never closed a store because of profitability issues and has been able to achieve high single-digit like-for-like growth rates. Action’s store economics are highly attractive with payback periods of seven to 14 months. The Manager views Action as a potentially countercyclical asset as the company targets all people regardless of their income level, and generally offers the lowest prices across all the product categories.