Ravensburger acquires Swedish toy company Brio

(AGI) Rome, Jan 8 - Ravensburger, a German toy company and amarket leader in the European jigsaw puzzle market, has takenover Brio, a wooden toy company founded in Sweden. Brio is aprestigious name in the toy sector and is most famous for itswooden trains. The price of the takeover has not beenannounced. Both companies have a long history: Ravensburger hasbeen active for 131 years and Brio for 130, during which theywere run as family businesses. But there is a big difference incompany size: Ravensburger has 1,719 employees and closed 2013with a turnover of 358.7 million euro, while Brio employs 80employees for a turnover of 37.6 million euro. Brio willcontinue to work under its own brand as an independentsubsidiary of Ravensburger. Commenting on the deal,Ravensburger chairman Karsten Schmidt said, "The purchase ofBrio is consistent with Ravensburger's strategy of increasinggrowth abroad and expanding from the games market into the toymarket." Heikki Takanen, chairman of Brio, welcomed theacquisition as well: "We are pleased that Brio will join theRavensburger group. This will add new longterm opportunitiesand accelerate growth." . .