Chinese merchants selling on Amazon have a little bit of time. Sloppy exporters are used to roaming suburban industrial areas and dealing with constant cash flow strains, but suddenly have coffee with China’s biggest venture capitalists and internet giants, and then: i have a big check stalking people Shane Or anchor.. VCs can fund rapid expansion, but often lack strategic expertise.

This is where brand aggregators can leverage their retail know-how. These companies, also called rollups, acquire promising e-commerce brands for operational synergies. After take off America, Europe And Recently in Southeast AsiaIt has also quietly landed in China, where traditional white label manufacturers are trying to move up the value chain and establish their own brand presence.

Last rollup to enter China Is the Berlin Brands Group (BBG) and aims to buy “dozens” of brands in the country over the next few years, founder and CEO Peter Chaljawski told TechCrunch. This will significantly strengthen the existing portfolio of German companies. 14 of them are their own brand and more than 20 companies have been acquired.

The movement came behind the BBG $ 240 million in debt raised Announcement on the balance sheet that $ 300 million will be committed to the acquisition. The company chose debt, in part because it has been profitable since its inception. The founder said the recent funding was not the last round and that he may use other financial products in the future.

Chaljawski does not view VCs or corporate investors as direct competitors in the search for a brand. “There are tens of thousands of sellers in China making a lot of money on Amazon. I think venture capital applies to some of them and the stacking model only applies to some of them. But “some” is a very large number. “

BBG is no stranger to China. With a 15-year history, the company relies on Chinese manufacturers to make kitchenware, gardening tools, sporting goods and other household appliances, 90% of which are still made in the country. The new brand acquisition initiative employs dozens of people in Shenzhen. This, what Chaljawski calls “Amazon’s Silicon Valley,” refers to the important role of southern cities in global exports, manufacturing and increasingly design.

Alternative to Amazon

BBG is not only an anonymous brand of Amazon, but also wants to offer a new way to develop Chinese consumer products in Europe and the United States. Sellers may want to separate themselves from US giants to gain more control over consumer data, but building a consumer brand (D2C) is no easy task.

According to the founders, many merchants who are good at managing Amazon’s third-party businesses don’t have the infrastructure that goes beyond Amazon, like their in-house logistics systems. In Europe, BBG operates a 120,000 square meter distribution center, eliminating its dependence on Amazon.

Chinese brands might also want to find an alternative to Amazon in Europe, where the e-commerce situation is much more fragmented than in the United States, Chaljawski said.

“When you look at the United States, Amazon dominates. In Europe, Amazon has only 10% of the online retail market share. In other words, 90% exceeds Amazon. In the Netherlands, Bol’s There are platforms like. Poland has Allegro and France has other dominant players. “

To bridge the gap between international brands targeting Europe, BBG operates nearly 20 D2C online stores in major European countries, excluding sales on Amazon. Sales growth in the United States is also in full swing. Currently, over 60% of the company’s revenue comes from channels other than Amazon.

BBG is already in high-level negotiations with “certain brands” in China, but at this point it is not possible to disclose its name.

Updated the story to clarify the number of brands in the BBG portfolio.