Helgstrand Gets Foot in Door of Show Jumping World: Alliance with Ludger Beerbaum

Dressage

Denmark

Helgstrand Dressage, the company led by Danish horse dealer Andreas Helgstrand and the Waterland Private Equity Group, are putting their foot in the door of the show jumping world by allying with Ludger Beerbaum.

The news of the next big entrepreneurial move Helgstrand made was broken yesterday by Borsen.dk, a Danish financial news website. The rumour mill had already been turning at full speed the past few weeks about another big take-over in the horse world. While the Beerbaum alliance has now been made official, there is certainly more news to come soon.

Global Equestrian Group

Ludger Beerbaum issued the official press release today, announcing the creation of the "Global Equestrian Group". With their alliance they "take over a world wide leading role in the horse business."

"Global Equestrian Group is established as a strategic partnership between the internationally esteemed Ludger Beerbaum Stables, consisting of sports and trading stables specialised in show jumping horses, a stallion station and the state-of-the-art Riesenbeck International Equestrian Center located in Germany; Helgstrand Dressage, one of the world’s leading equestrian sports companies with modern sales and training centers in Denmark, Germany and the US; and Waterland Private Equity."

The alliance will entail that Global Equestrian Group will have 150 employees, a presence in 4 countries, and a revenue exceeding 60 million euro.

Helgstrand Dressage has put its side activities (the jewelry, clothing and equestrian sports brand Kingsland, and other equestrian venture activities) into Global Equestrian Group. Waterland Private Equity will be a majority shareholder of the newly formed partnership.

Second Try to Break Through in the Show Jumping Market,

This is the second attempt Helgstrand has made to break through in the show jumping world. The jumping market is significantly larger than the dressage market, appraised at being 30 billion euro industry.

In April 2018 Helgstrand already partnered with the German based Swedish rider Rolf-Göran Bengtsson with as aim "to build a show jumping sales stable with the same emphasis on quality, customer focus and (eventually) inventory depth that Helgstrand has created within the dressage world."

Very little was heard of how that partnership went and if there were successes. Show jumping horses were never advertised for sale on the official Helgstrand website, nor was there a visible link made to Bengtsson.

With the Beerbaum alliance a more significant hold on the jumper world will be obtained.

Riesenbeck

With the Global Equestrian Group, Beerbaum and Helgstrand want to "create a global equestrian leader and unleash the potential of combining deep dressage and show jumping insights."

Beerbaum stated: "I look forward to cooperate with my new partners as I will head our activities in show jumping and pursue our growth and expansion plans."

The Riesenbeck International Equestrian Center will be expanded and refurbished this spring to offer 300 permanent stables and new outdoor sand arenas, among other things. The group's jumping activities will be increased with horse trading, training, rearing and breeding to have "a solid platform to grow the presence in the large and attractive jumping market organically and through acquisitions of reputable stables."

Show Sponsorship

In 2018 Helgstrand was already the title sponsor for dressage at the World Equestrian Games and it has already signed the contract to sponsor the 2022 World Championships in Herning.

Rumours are rife that Helgstrand, through the Global Equestrian Group, will be venturing into the lucrative show jumping (WEF) and dressage world (Global Dressage Festival) in Wellington, Florida.

A new boost of cash into the Wellington circuit could make it more competitive against the rising mastodon, the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Florida, where a brand new, Disney land sized "show world" has been built to swallow up Wellington.

In January 2020, Helgstrand already purchased a 17.4 million $ property in Wellington as U.S. sales headquarters.