At Cort Consulting Group, we understand what is involved in attempting growth through acquisitions. If a business strategy dictates that acquisitions are fundamental for growth, we work with management to create an acquisition strategy, which delineates criteria for the type of business that should be acquired. We then create a prospect list and research candidates to assign preliminary values to the targets. Our extensive experience and our breadth of contacts in the food industry allow us to prioritize the target businesses based on how they will fit into our client’s business, the synergies, the preliminary value and an estimate of the eagerness of the owners to sell.
The targets are approached on a confidential basis to assess the feasibility of the acquisition. We assist in detailed due diligence to verify the value of the business and to help insure that there are no post-acquisition surprises. We strive to maximize value by assisting with negotiating the price, the acquisition agreement and financing arrangements when necessary.
Post Acquisition Integration:
Integrating an acquisition into the rest of the company can be as critical to success as the negotiation of the acquisition itself, maybe more so. We create a preliminary integration plan as part of the acquisition analysis. It is used to define the synergies expected from the acquisition. After the acquisition is completed, a detailed transition plan is put in place, which defines the goals and objectives that are expected to be achieved. Measurable milestones are defined for operations (e.g.: volume, plant efficiency, market penetration, account authorization, advertising) and finance (e.g.: profits, costs by product, product line and distribution channel). A methodology is established for tracking key milestones and measuring the variances from the initial objectives.
In order to succeed, the goals and objectives must be communicated effectively to staff, customers, suppliers and other strategic partners. Variances will almost always occur. It is most important to identify and understand what caused the variances, whether the cause was internal or external to the organization, and what steps are necessary to fix the problems or to take advantage of the opportunities.