Acquisition Planning and Execution

Acquisitions are a critical component of many of The Food Partners’ (TFP) clients’ growth strategies, as the right acquisition can result in improved returns, significant synergies, entry into new markets, an ability to leverage ever increasing overhead costs and create a higher profile with key stakeholders. Acquiring a top performing company can provide a low risk path to enhancing shareholder value. Acquiring assets out of bankruptcy may provide the opportunity to pay the right price and leverage synergies for higher than average returns.

Successfully acquiring another company requires a significant amount of planning, screening, analysis, negotiating and documenting. Few companies have trained professionals on staff to plan and execute acquisitions. TFP has dedicated, experienced acquisition professionals who are in the marketplace on a daily basis negotiating with potential buyers and sellers, have detailed knowledge of industry transactions and have developed and executed dozens of successful acquisitions on behalf of clients. This experience adds value at every stage of the acquisition process.

In addition, TFP utilizes several unique tools and skills to help ensure a successful acquisition. For instance, TFP’s “Fit Chart” analysis is a key starting point to the process. The “Fit Chart” is a proprietary tool designed to sift through the diverse characteristics of potential acquisition targets by utilizing a methodical process of analyzing and ranking targets to focus management’s acquisition strategy on those with the best overall fit. Likewise, TFP’s due diligence services are unsurpassed in the food industry. Experience from hundreds of food related transactions provides clients the comfort that all industry specific issues will be addressed and all material risks identified. Lastly, TFP believes monitoring both the integration process and post acquisition performance is integral to securing expected value. TFP’s analytical expertise and monitoring tools help ensure results meet expectations and return on investment targets are achieved.

These services do more than help clients manage searches and execute transactions. They help clients develop acquisition strategies, build consensus among key stakeholders, assess and quantify potential risks and rewards and evaluate the ultimate success of an acquisition for both internal management and external stakeholders, including capital sources.

Further, internally managed acquisitions can require an extensive amount of management’s time and effort which is often diverted from, or added to, already significant responsibilities in the operation of the business. Employing TFP’s resources effectively minimizes the disruption to management, providing them time to stay focused on the business at hand.