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Repositioning & Growth Strategies

Revitalize/Grow
TCDG for RESTRUCTURE & GROWTH

“The Corporate Development Group specializes in repositioning underperforming food companies into growth oriented profitable entities.”

The Corporate Development Group focuses on working with underperforming as well as performing food companies that require operational and financial repositioning. Armed with a broad base of industrial, financial, and business experience, the group provides timely and creative solutions to food companies primarily in manufacturing and distribution. Our approach is holistic and our work typically impacts business strategy, operations, sales and marketing, technology, and finance.

The Elements of Trouble

To many, a troubled company is one plagued with financial burdens, an employer unable to meet its payroll, or an institution struggling to meet its debts. Although, trouble can visit a company in other ways. The company’s founder may die leaving the company without leadership. A group of top management could suddenly exit and form their own competing business. Trouble may also appear in the form of a bitter feud in a family run business. Sometimes a fast growing company grows too quickly and its expansion simply bypasses managements’ ability to run it or to finance it. Some of the market related troubles can be sudden loss of the company’s biggest customer, new competition, globalization, the rapid changes in technology, and excess capacity.

When the organization’s problems become known, creditors are often angry and confused, employees are scared, and customers look on with suspicion and uncertainty.

Manufacturing:

The present state of manufacturing is threatened by a number of adversarial factors. Unrelenting cost increases, growing number of aggressive low-cost competitors, and excess production capacity. Adding to these are customer demands for lower price, faster delivery, and higher quality products.

Distribution:

Challenging times are ahead for the distribution industry as consumer preferences further evolve, technology and products continue to change, and discount giants such as Wal-Mart and Costco source more products directly from manufacturers. To sustain success, distributors must not only exceed customer expectations, but they must also be responsive enough to capitalize on shifts in customer values and needs.

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"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."

-John Quincy Adams

TCDG takes pride in helping our clients grow profitably by better understanding the competitive environment and implementing information-based solutions to their financial management, marketing, and operations challenges.

  • Strategic Growth Planning: After clearly identifying a company’s core competencies, competitive advantages, and strategic gaps, and after carefully analyzing the financial capabilities and needs, TCDG assists in creating implementable strategies that are destined for success. In this process the blend of investment banking with marketing / business development expertise gives TCDG a special value perspective. A particular strength is developing strategies for growth, or for filling strategic gaps, through acquisition or strategic alliances.
  • Restructurings: TCDG’s substantial experience in turnaround situations allows it to examine core and non-core business segments. Those segments not providing a sufficient cash flow or EBITDA represent either divestiture or reorganization opportunities. The process of restructuring operations must be sensitive to human capital and potential organizational upheaval.
  • Manufacturing Asset Optimization: An in-depth assessment on addressing the many implicit trade-offs between what a plant can profitably produce and the marketplace wants. TCDG recommends a combination of marketing, sales, and operations actions that synergistically drive more profits from the manufacturing facility.
  • Turnaround Management: TCDG provides a dispassionate and independent assessment of the environment and quickly identifies the business risks and opportunities associated with each situation.
  • Breakup Analysis: It involves analyzing the value of each of a company’s discrete assets (normally business units, but can include intangible assets) and totaling these individual values to arrive at a value for the entire company. With its market and industry knowledge, TCDG is well-equipped to carry out this activity, and particularly to understand and give maximum value to specific intangibles.
  • Profit Enhancement: Because TCDG frequently works with underperforming companies, it can quickly identify “red flags” in otherwise healthy companies. Unlike other consulting organizations, TCDG not only identifies the improvement opportunity but also works with the company to fully enact the solution.

“Building a business”

Value added

Whether the food company’s issues involve surviving, choosing major strategic options, dramatically improving profitability or cash flow, managing growth, accessing capital, or resolving management or organizational conflicts, we have proven consistently our ability to assess and implement practical solutions. Our corporate mission and our reputation in the business community has been built on our ability to get results and to get these results in an organized, planned, and cooperative manner. We, work with the company’s management to bring in the understanding of the differences between focus, diversification, and innovation to build growth strategies.

We believe that, with a company’s ultimate survival and growth on the line, results are everything. TCDG can breathe new life into a faltering company. As it analyzes then attacks the problem at hand, it can make decisions with total objectivity, because, as an outsider, it can set goals without a preconceived agenda.

Our focus is to work with the company’s management to implement counter measures. It is important to stabilize the climate surrounding the troubled business. Externally we build the confidence of lenders, vendors, and key customers. Well respected within the food industry as well as in the accounting, banking, and legal communities; TCDG negotiates practical agreements with creditors and vendors.

At the core of every liquidity crisis is a crisis in confidence about the financial management of the troubled company. Realistic sales and financial forecasts takes unnecessary pressure off of management and allows them to understand the true value of the business. TCDG restores reliability in the numbers enabling creditors to have renewed confidence in the company’s strategy, management team, and business outlook.

Besides other important areas, TCDG puts emphasis in the areas of cost accounting, supply chain management, and manufacturing optimization to bring to the surface opportunities to reduce cost, increase efficiency, and bring profitable growth.

The ultimate goal is to enable a manufacturer/ distributor not only to offset eroding profit margins, but also to eventually become the aggressor for market share by building a cost-effective, high quality, flexible, and demand driven enterprise.

CASE STUDY
  • Situation: A privately owned, $100+ million revenue, ethnic food manufacturer was looking for solutions for profitable growth.
  • Problem: The company was losing market share, suffering low profit margins, and experiencing intense competitive pressures.
  • Solution: Through market analysis we developed an understanding of the external environment and identified the company’s competitive advantages. In result we developed corporate alternatives including focused acquisitions and corporate partnerships accompanied by strategic financing.
  • Benefit: Today, with the revenues more than doubled the company has become a very profitable category leader in its sector.