Frozen Foods
Customer & Market Due Diligence Of BFY Frozen Prepared Foods Brand: Establishing Brand Metrics, Competitive Positioning, And Market Growth Outlook
Conducted a 3-week customer & market due diligence to establish the target's market size and growth outlook and competitive positioning. To this end, Gotham: conducted a deep-dive analysis of Nielsen IQ monthly retail sales data over 4 years for 32,000 SKUs and 2,200 brands; conducted over 20 anonymous interviews with key grocery chain category buyers; and profiled legacy and BFY competitors. Gotham’s SKU and brand metrics analysis and interviews provided our client with a robust understanding of the target’s competitive positioning and the growth outlook of BFY frozen prepared foods, allowing our client to make an informed bid.
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Performance Tracking Tools at Leading Frozen Mexican Food Manufacturer: Helping New Management Make Fact-based Decisions
Constructed methodology and models to view profitability by customer, product, and channel. Results led new management to refocus product development/growth strategy on profitable products. Management succeeded in doubling revenue of profitable products and private equity owners sold firm to a strategic buyer in 3 years for a 26% compound annual return on investment.
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Customer & Market And Operational Due Diligence Of Leading Processor Of Freeze-Dried Fruits: Rapid Assessment Of Technology, Competitive, Customer Concentration, And Operational Risks
Provided clarity on risks (technology, competitive, customer concentration, and operational), and growth opportunities ahead of bid. Through interviews with 30+ competitors (domestic and import), distributors, equipment suppliers, academic experts, and customers, and extensive secondary research, Gotham established: the applications and advantages/disadvantages of freeze-drying technology; the target’s positioning vs. domestic and international freeze-drying processors in South America, China and Europe; and the stability/growth of its top customers. Gotham’s analysis revealed while the market was growing and the target was well-positioned and poised for growth, it could potentially face increased competitive intensity and margin pressure. Our client accounted for all these risks and tempered growth projections in its model.
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Operational Due Diligence of Premium Fresh and Frozen Food Manufacturer: Rapidly Pinning Down Capacity/CAPEX Situation in Support of 2nd Round Bid
Built a robust plant and equipment profile and comprehensive capacity model to provide client with understanding of true capacity picture in support of valuation assumptions for target in competitive bid process. Determined target could achieve ~3X stated capacity through minimal CAPEX; established 10% in quick-win cost savings available in labor, material, and overhead; and provided client with preliminary growth strategy utilizing co-packers, including targeted list of 9 potential co-packers interested in potential strategic alliance. Client moved forward with a more competitive bid based on Gotham’s capacity assessment.
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Operational Due Diligence of Family-owned Branded Ethnic Foods Manufacturer: Assessing Operational Scalability to Support Targeted Growth
Built operational performance fact base and cost model for due diligence of an entrepreneurial company. Effort included: first-hand observation of operations, management interviews, data collection and synthesis, equipment condition and capex requirement assessment, food safety review, and interviews with potential co-packers. Established that: the existing plant can meet the buyer's target of growing the business 2-3X current volume; identified 5-6 viable and interested co-packers; identified opportunities to reduce cost per case by 16-17.5%; and provided a road map for improving operations. The PE firm is in process of closing the deal.
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Manufacturing Operations Improvements at Foodservice/Co-pack Juice Company: Network-wide Operating System to Turn Around Performance
Turned around plant performance by implementing basic plant operating system (downtime, waste, and scheduling). $600K in run rate cost savings captured by the end of the 6-week engagement, with tools and processes in place to capture the rest. Building on the initial success, rolled out the network-wide standard operating procedures to the other 2 plants during an 8-week Phase II effort with additional savings of $2-2.5MM expected. Company generating record EBITDA (60+% improvement in EBITDA) and the PE firm decided to market the company for an exit.
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