Situation
Vegetarian Express, the leading plant-based and niche ingredients wholesaler to the out-of-home and foodservice market, owned by a large UK based private equity group, asked Food Strategy Associates to provide Commercial Vendor Due Diligence on the company.
What we did
Food Strategy Associates worked with Management and Shareholders to develop and evidence a clear and robust investment thesis while minimising demands on Management through close collaboration with other advisors and inherent knowledge of the food sector. During our work, we emphasised the strength of the client’s full proposition over competitors, evidencing the lack of any direct competitors and the vast, tangible room for growth in the category that it has defined.
In our approach, we conducted an analysis on the market for plant-based products in Foodservice across the UK, analysing the different Foodservice channels, which are all very varied in structure, purchasing criteria, and trends. Over a period of 6-weeks we:
- Used management financials, Future of Foodservice data, and third-party data (such as Kantar, CGA, Board Bia) to evaluate performance across their key channels and categories
- Conducted interviews with key customers, competitors, and industry experts across foodservice, to understand category trends, competitive landscape, the client’s strengths and weaknesses, and opportunities for further growth
- Worked closely with management to get a thorough understanding of the proposition, enabling us to clearly articulate the importance of their service and customer support in addition to the product portfolio, and how they are differentiated from competitors
- In the absence of concrete data on Foodservice channels, collated data from the ONS, Opentable, TfL and Expedia to identify key trends
- Analysed the company’s financials and benchmarked it against peers
- Utilised all of the above and expert knowledge to appraise the client’s 4-year plan across channels and define potential risks / upsides
Results delivered
Food Strategy Associates successfully completed the assignment and received excellent feedback from the client, the private equity owner and the bankers on the transaction. The sale process successfully completed, with NVM, a private equity business, acquiring the asset.