Private Label/ Contract Manufacturing
Customer & Market and Operational Due Diligence of Private Label Canned Food Manufacturer: Establishing Growth Prospects, Margin Risk, CapEx Risk, and Operations Improvement Opportunities
In sync with the needs of each stage of the deal process, conducted phased customer, market, and operational due diligence, initially focusing on: 1) growth outlook – established the target’s category presence, identified key market trends, and built a model to project category growth; 2) competitive positioning – interviewed 27 PL and category buyers from supermarkets, wholesalers, food service companies, and brokers; and 3) CapEx and operational risk – visited the target’s 3 plants, assessed capacity, and reviewed operational improvement plans. After the client signed the LOI, Gotham conducted: a deep dive assessment of margin risk, using 7-year SKU-level price/margin data and outlook for major input cost drivers; and an in-depth operational diagnostic of material yield, direct labor, and inventory costs.
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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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Operations Diagnostic at Niche Beverage Co-Packer: Throughput and Cost Improvements to Become a Competitive Full-line Co-packer
2 week diagnostic that benchmarked conversion costs for the company and identified 15-20% in cost reduction opportunities. The effort indicated that with improved scheduling processes and more efficient use of labor, the company could save at least $1.5MM in the short-term. Recommendations also included putting in place a system to track true costs and performance to enable longer-term improvements.
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Exit Preparation/Positioning Of Hispanic Foods Manufacturer: Establishing Company’s 5-year Growth Stack
Conducted a market dynamics and whitespace opportunity assessment to craft a fact-based growth story to inform management’s growth case and provide potential buyers with an understanding of company’s business and potential future growth. Gotham: established key market trends in all retail and foodservice segments; built an in-depth retail market sizing model of company’s product categories; built a database of Hispanic and mainstream restaurant chains and built a bottom-up foodservice market sizing model; and developed the company’s whitespace opportunity model for retail and foodservice. Gotham’s assessment provided the client with quantified fact-based view of company’s growth opportunities leading to a highly contested auction.
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Operations Improvement At Ethnic Foodservice Products Manufacturer: Rapidly Capturing Manufacturing And Logistics Cost Reduction Opportunities
Captured $1.2MM in operations run-rate savings in 12 weeks at an ethnic foodservice and retail private label products manufacturer by implementing shop floor management best practices. Gotham worked on the shop floor to: observe operations; identify potential improvement opportunities; provide immediate guidance to client personnel; and troubleshoot and pilot solutions. We improved line through from ~225 cases/shift to ~375 cases/shift, reduced fill weight by 3-7% to minimize overfill, reduce floor scrap by 50%; and eliminated expired rework scrap. To ensure sustainability and further improvements, we: trained client personnel, put in place process changes, tools, KPIs and reporting system; and identified/planned next set of improvement opportunities. Gotham also launched logistics savings capture by developing direct ship pilot and facilitating conversation between company sales teams and foodservice distributors.
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Operational Due Diligence Of Family-owned Food, Personal, And Home Care Products Manufacturer: Rapidly Establishing Manufacturing Outsourcing Economics And Requirements
Conducted rapid operational due diligence to establish manufacturing outsourcing economics at a family-owned food, personal care, and home care products manufacturer. Gotham quickly: built a bottom-up view of the target’s cost structure, current product costs, co-pack costs, and organization structure; conducted plant walkthrough and interviewed operations management; and interviewed companies in food and personal care products outsourcing. We established that outsourcing economics are slightly favorable as logistics and G&A would generate sufficient savings to more than offset a slight increase in food manufacturing cost. As our assessment indicated higher costs and risks associated with outsourcing food products, our client successfully pursued a restructured transaction of carving out personal and home care brands and products.
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