Quad Lock, Australian phone case innovator, sold to Thule in $500 million deal
Quad Lock, an Australian manufacturer of phone mounts and accessories, is set to be acquired by Sweden’s Thule in a deal worth $500 million.
Quad Lock co-founder Rob Ward admits Swedish giant Thule was one of the companies he and co-founder Chris Peters always thought they would “be very lucky to do something with”.
That aspiration is now a reality for the Melbourne entrepreneurs, with Thule to acquire Quad Lock in a deal valued at $500 million.
Quadrant Private Equity, which took a majority stake in Quad Lock in 2020, will part with its holdings.
Thule will also acquire the remaining shares held by co-founders Ward and Peters, who established the Quad Lock brand in 2011.
“We are excited about Quad Lock’s future and couldn’t have found a better acquirer,” Ward told SmartCompany on Tuesday.
Quad Lock phone mounts are designed to be used on bicycles, motorcycles, cars, boats, and baby strollers, offering a wide range of hands-free solutions.
With the acquisition, Thule — best known for its range of roof racks, camping accessories and strollers — will add a brand that complements its adventurous and outdoors-focused products.
Quad Lock will leverage Thule’s existing strengths and market expertise, says Ward.
But the deal could open fresh markets for Quad Lock’s new parent company, too.
“Quad Lock is actually quite a big name in motorcycling now, but Thule actually don’t really have any motorcycling products,” he explains.
“That could actually be something that opens up the whole motorcycling market for Thule as well, together.”
The parties still have “lots to work out”, Ward continues.
“But the synergies between and the alignment between the two brands, the markets we sell into, our product philosophy, it’s very, very close.
“To be honest, Thule was always one of those companies we thought we’d be very lucky to do something with them.”
Mattias Ankarberg, president and CEO of Thule Group, said the acquisition will help take the business to “the next level”.
“Quad Lock is a global market leader in its niche and, like Thule, has a passion for creating the best products for active adventurers, with a strong focus on quality and innovation,” Ankarberg said in a statement.
“Welcoming Quad Lock’s talented employees to the Thule family strengthens us in several areas and is a valuable step towards our financial targets for 2030; sales of SEK 20 billion ($2.8 billion) and an EBIT margin of at least 20 percent.”
Quad Lock sales totalled $196 million in the 2024 financial year, a four-fold increase since 2020, according to Quadrant Private Equity.
The Quad Lock story, as told by the SmartCompany archives
The Quad Lock journey involves crowdfunding, global growth and four appearances on the Smart50 list of australia’s fastest growing SMEs.
2011
The business that became Quad Lock started in 2011, when Ward and Peters collaborated on a combined phone case and bottle opener called Opena.
After securing Kickstarter funding for that product, the pair returned to the platform to fund Quad Lock, a bicycle mount design created by Peters himself.
After raising $35,000 from more than 500 backers, and garnering major interest in the United States, Ward shared his vision of global expansion with SmartCompany.
“We don’t see design products exclusively for the iPhone as a limitation because it’s the most popular handset in the world with a user base of over 90 million, and that’s a big market,” he said.
2015
Within four years of founding the company, Ward and Peters found themselves among illustrious company at number 19 on the Smart50 list, with annual revenue of $5.65 million and a three-year revenue growth of 227%.
At the time, Ward said his advice for other online retailers was to fail fast but stay true to your original vision.
“Learn from your mistakes and go again,” he said at the time.
“We always seem to have more ideas but it’s important to stay focused. Although nowadays it’s not just us pushing the ideas as we take a lot of feedback from our customers and develop products that they want.”
2016
A year later, Quad Lock was well and truly the cornerstone of Annex Products, the company led by Ward and Peters.
The company was recording annual turnover of nearly $9 million, and a year-on-year growth rate of 211%, earning it a place on the Smart50 awards list that year (Quad Lock was also in 2022 and 2023).
At the time, Ward said the business was growing in scale without necessarily growing in headcount.
“There seems to be this idea of a correlation between a successful business and a business with a lot of people,” he said.
“It’s funny – I find you bump into someone and people will ask: ‘How is the business going, how many people do you have now?’ And I’d say: ‘We still have three people’.”
“We don’t want to have people for people’s sake. It’s just that we need enough people to keep it working.”
Today, Quad Lock counts around 100 employees.
2020
In 2020, Ward and Peters agreed to sell a majority stake in Quad Lock and Annex Products to Quadrant Private Equity, helping the venture fund its post-lockdown growth.
The business was bootstrapped until that point.
At the time, Ward told SmartCompany it was time to bring on a partner “who has the ability to add value and knowledge and capital in areas that we probably haven’t played in before”.
“The business is a lot bigger than it was even a year ago, and it continues to go that way,” Ward added.
“It just becomes a different game.”
While the share sale was pivotal for the business and prepared Quad Lock for the Thule takeover, Ward believes bootstrapping and an early focus on profitability was the right call.
“Growing a good, sustainable, profitable business maybe wasn’t the coolest thing for a long time. It was more about how much money you’ve raised”, Ward said on Tuesday.
“It would be good if people can see that there’s multiple options and ways to success, with quite considerable scale as well,” he continued.
“We did do a deal with Quadrant Private Equity, and we did go down a different path as well, so there’s nothing wrong with some of that.
“But I just think it’d be good if more of it was talked about, so people realise there’s other options.”
2022
Ward stepped down as chief executive in 2022, taking on the role of chief growth officer.
While Quad Lock adjusts to its new ownership, the co-founders will continue to back the brand under Thule.
“Chris and myself, we’re still around,” Ward confirmed on Tuesday.
“We’re still engaged. We want this thing to go on become bigger and better than ever as part of Thule.
“Both Chris and myself are now Thule shareholders, so we’re very aligned to make sure that Thule gets success from this.”
Never miss a story: sign up to SmartCompany’s free daily newsletter and find our best stories on LinkedIn.
Comments