Situation
- Paulig, a €1B Finnish food and Beverage company focused on World Foods, Snacks, Spices, and Coffees, engaged Food Strategy Associates to conduct buy-side Operational and Commercial Due Diligence on Panesar Foods, a UK-based ambient sauces manufacturer with £100M in revenue, in preparation for a potential acquisition
What We Did
To support our client, we:
- Conducted a comprehensive assessment of the manufacturing base and potential site expansion opportunities through physical site visits and analysis of site layouts, process flows, and planning permission documents
- Evaluated operational hygiene and compliance performance using a red-amber-green assessment across key metrics: Health & Safety, Cost, Quality, Service, Environment, and People. Also assessed S&OP maturity and identified quick-win cost-saving opportunities through manufacturing data analysis
- Reviewed process technologies and their alignment with Paulig’s products to identify synergies, assess production capacity, pinpoint bottlenecks, and explore capacity enhancement initiatives. This included analysis of production data, financial records, and on-site audits of production lines
- Critiqued manufacturing investment plans and delivery performance, benchmarking against industry KPIs and assessed procurement synergies and capabilities through analysis of internal documents and competitor data as well as interviews with target management
- Conducted a competitive landscape review, analysing key players, their capabilities, performance, and existing customer contracts using desk research, expert interviews with competitors, customers, and industry participants, and analysis of competitor data
- Evaluated the target’s commercial capabilities, customer perceptions, relationship strength, and historic tender performance
Results Delivered
- Food Strategy Associates successfully completed the assignment, earning excellent feedback from Paulig, leading to a successful transaction close