After the first sprint, most owners want the same people to stay and make the plan happen. That's the partnership: strategic, acquisitions-led, sitting on your side of the table, and value we create together. Every plan ends in one of four routes.
Talk to us about a partnershipWhich one is yours comes out of the sprint. Some owners will be the platform a group is built around; some are better placed as a strong part of one. Both are good outcomes, and we'll tell you honestly which we think fits.
Your company becomes the platform. We find and buy complementary businesses around your customers, integrate them, and compound the value: the fastest path to shareholder value we know.
Value is profit × multiple. A £1M-profit company sells for perhaps 3–5x; a £5M-profit group with shared systems and a management team sells for 6–8x or more. Buying at 3–4x and being valued at 6–8x is the arbitrage. The rest is execution.
You'd rather be a strong part of something bigger than build it alone. We're building groups in specific sectors and looking for well-run businesses to join them.
Growth support and shared capability now, a partial exit and a share in the bigger outcome later, and you keep control of the business you built.
One acquisition at a time, without committing to the full group machinery. Target list, approach, structure (deferred consideration, vendor rollover, growth-scheme lending, investor equity where needed), diligence, completion, integration.
Then the next one, if it makes sense.
Trade sale, private equity, group exit or direct listing, prepared from day one. Governance, reporting and a board built early, comparables tracked, the story written before the buyer asks for it.
A direct listing gives owners liquidity, a public currency for further acquisitions, and control. We plan for it where it fits.
Buy what you understand, where your network and reputation already work.
Buy what your customers already need and don't get from you.
Lots of small owners, few consolidators, real demand growth.
Retirement, fatigue and succession, not distress.
Each company keeps a general manager. You set strategy and do the next deal.
If you've already got a plan and a business that runs without you, let's talk about a partnership. If not, the 90-day sprint is the way in, and we'll say so.
“Your approach aligns perfectly with what we’re trying to achieve: building a properly run, scalable business that’s attractive to investors while still something we’re proud to keep running.”
“Gavin’s support has gone significantly beyond what we expected when he said he’d ‘hold our hand’ through this process, in a very positive way.”
A weekly letter on growth systems, reducing founder-dependence and maximising value for owner-led businesses.