Gruau Group was founded in 1889, and is a manufacturer and coachbuilder specializing in the manufacture of bodywork for light utility vehicles (LUV – less than 3.5 metric tons). Its purpose is to provide the right global transport or mobility solution to help each LUV-using customer to achieve optimized business performance. Gruau is a multi-specialist European leader organized around three activities: manufacturing-coachbuilding, short-run manufacturing and clean transport solutions. Gruau Group has manufacturing capabilities throughout its entire territory and has a commercial presence in more than 125 points of service in Europe. With 2009 sales of €130 million, it carries out bodywork on more than 33,000 vehicles annually, and has nearly 1,000 employees compared with 600 in 2004.

Gruau Group is NextStage Entreprises FCPR I’s second divestment. The fund was launched in 2004 and has invested in 15 unlisted SMEs. Through its investment in Gruau Group, the NextStage investment team has provided active support to the family group led by Patrick Gruau. It has contributed to its development and served as a catalyst for its growth, boosting it to a leadership position in its market. In particular, it has provided its expertise in managing the company’s working capital needs and has helped it to make acquisitions. NextStage’s initial July 2005 investment enabled Gruau Group to break ground in the electric vehicle market, a key activity in the Group’s future growth. From 2005 to 2008, Gruau’s revenues grew briskly.

Although it was affected by the 2009 recession, the company should rebound in 2010, thanks especially to its positioning in hybrid energy and electric vehicles. In this regard, in November 2009, Gruau signed an industrial agreement with Italy’s Micro-Vett for electrification of Fiat’s entire range of utility vehicles – further proof of Gruau’s leadership in clean-energy utility vehicles.