Industry Expertise for Private Equity
IRCG helps top tier private equity firms and strategic buyers manage their risk and maximize their investment returns. Our consultants are comfortable working in the dynamic environment of transactions, integration and turnarounds. We recognize that speed can be the decisive factor. We combine a highly structured and proven methodology with a flexible, responsive working approach. We can offer significant insight based on our hands-on consulting work, extensive industry contacts and leading edge market research.
Acquisition Support
IRCG brings unparalleled value to the acquisition process by applying 20 years of wholesale distribution consulting experience to the limited information typically available during discovery. This is important because distribution is different from other types of businesses, such as manufacturing or retail. Value can be created in these businesses by reducing process variation. Lean and Six Sigma are well established tools in manufacturing, while creating a consistent customer experience is well established in retail.
The foundation of distributor success is customer intimacy. When distributors describe “selling service” as a basis of competitive advantage, they are technically describing mass customization. Distributors take hundreds of actions every day at the lowest levels in their organizations to customize their service offering to individual customers. Although this may appear be nothing more than consistent inconsistency, it is in fact the core of how distributors add value.
The demand for mass customization is the reason that distribution remains a fundamentally local business, resistant to economies of scale. Increasing enterprise value in this environment means effecting change throughout a de-centralized organization without destroying its greatest asset: customer intimacy.
These realities create both risks and opportunities for the potential acquirer. IRCG offers a broad range of capabilities to ensure that the risks are minimized and the opportunities are exploited. Our unique insights give our clients a competitive edge over rival buyers.
IRCG's acquisition support services include:
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Development and execution of a target pipeline process. We can help you create an efficient but powerful process for proactively identifying, evaluating, approaching and closing acquisitions. |
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Investment thesis creation and validation. Our industry experience enables us to identify hidden opportunities overlooked by other buyers. We can also provide a reality check on the claims and assumptions made in the target’s Offering Memorandum. |
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Strategic assessment. Our consultants can evaluate the target’s strategic position and potential for synergies. We cover areas including product portfolio, competitors, customer concentration, customer profitability, customer relationships and supplier leverage. Data sources for this analysis typically include publicly available market research, primary research (interviews) and IRCG’s internal knowledge base. |
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Market analysis including evaluation of the risk of market disruptions from emerging competitors, distributor disintermediation by suppliers, shifts from exclusive to open distribution, etc. We can help you understand whether the target is ahead of the curve or behind it. |
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Due diligence support. We have provided assessments of all functional areas, including marketing, sales, operations and logistics. One of our strengths is the ability to identify and focus on the areas that offer real financial leverage. Typically, these include buy-side (gross margin) management, pricing and customer profitability, and sales force re-alignment. |
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Implementation planning. The acquisition price is largely set by competing bidders, but the return on this investment is determined by implementation effectiveness. IRCG can identify the key risk factors and make specific recommendations for their mitigation. By developing high level execution plans, IRCG helps acquirers ensure that their enterprise value enhancements can be realized within the investment horizon. |
Many service providers can collect and synthesize quantitative information during due diligence. IRCG offers the unique ability to evaluate less tangible factors that often play a decisive role in the success of a transaction.
Operating Support
IRCG’s deep distribution expertise can help you tackle operating issues quickly and effectively. Our diagnostic skills have been honed over the course of performing hundreds of distribution company assessments.
Our operating support capabilities include:
§ Full operational assessment including sales management, logistics, information technology and inventory management
§ Management team assessment
§ Creative resolution of minority ownership control and governance issues
§ Interim management
§ Turnarounds and restructuring
Call us for a free phone consultation, or email info@ircg.com
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For Private Equity 
