We’ve spoken to many businesses about their buy and build journeys, but those stories of scale and success never get old. Why? Because each one is different. Each one highlights the powerful nature of a well-executed buy and build strategy. And each one tells a compelling growth story that in today’s economic climate is a real pleasure to hear about.
Last week, we took the opportunity to hear more about why buy and build is such an effective method of accelerating growth and creating value rapidly. North West Business Insider’s second ever Dealmakers Lunch Series brought together industry leaders and advisors to explore the opportunities and challenges of this approach – and, like the first in the series, it didn’t disappoint.
Such is the interest in buy and build, the North West dealmaking community were out in force at a packed house at Manchester Hall, as we enjoyed lunch and networking, sandwiched between two really interesting panel discussions.
Led by editor, Simon Keegan, the panels explored growth sectors and areas of consolidation, the different funding models to support growth – key insights from those people doing the deals, and those helping to orchestrate them.
The first, featuring Vicky Protano from Mills & Reeve, Paul Billingham from Knight Corporate Finance and Rowan Grobler from K3 Advantage, produced a few great one liners, covering marriage, flings, sofas and time being the ‘biggest killer of deals’. The ‘professionals’ line-up also talked passionately about the deals process, highlighting:
➡️ The value of data and flipping due diligence from a ‘necessary evil’ to an ongoing business process
➡️ Why it’s so important not to dive straight into the numbers, but to establish whether there’s a good cultural fit
➡️ And why first impressions count when integrating a business.
Panel two focused on buy and build journeys, with Rob Winkler from RSK Group, Stephanie Potts from Vivify and Charlie Parry from UrbanChain.
➡️ Serial acquirer, RSK, has completed 150 deals – averaging about 25-30 per year across the globe, with 95% of the business owners they acquire staying within the business. Asked by Simon Keegan if they have to ‘kiss a lot of frogs to find the prince’, Rob explained that they get about 700-800 businesses coming across their desks each year. For Rob, ‘the future of M&A is psychology’. “It’s really important to try and build trust quickly and build strong relationships. There’s nothing worse than someone realising they’ve sold their business to the wrong buyer.”
➡️ In comparison, Vivify is starting out on its M&A journey. Having completed one acquisition since forming in 2020, the ‘airbnb of school hire’ is helping to commercialise school assets. Stephanie talked about whether it’s the right time to do M&A as a small business in the current global climate. This means that increasing the company’s ‘stickiness’ and looking at complementary products also form part of Vivify’s growth journey.
➡️ P2P energy exchange, UrbanChain, is the third fastest tech company in the UK and Charlie spoke in-depth about how M&A is supporting its growth to build distribution and scale.
The blend of insights from inside and outside of the buy and build process gave great balance to the discussion on the growth model and showed Insider’s influence at bringing together key people from across the regional dealmaking community – both on the panel and in the audience.
