Home > Why Us
HERE’S A TASTE OF OUR WORK
Manufacturing / Packaging
“We had for two years been on a journey to improve things but we had run out of steam and ways of achieving the next stage. The EPIC team resolved this by providing structure, solutions and on-site support, backed up with cohesive methods for delivery, and support in implementing their recommendations.”
The Circumstances
A long-standing family owned manufacturing business, based in the North of England, had grown its turnover to £5+m per annum. However, unforeseen circumstances and the financial downturn in 2008 took the business into a rapid decline. Faced with a market that had been decimated by the recession – with furniture manufacturers losing up to 50% of their turnover overnight and the continued growth of raw material costs from duopolistic suppliers (on occasions in excess of 46% in some years) – the business not only had to contend with this escalating cost of production, but it had to maintain its price position in order to retain its customer base within this shrinking market.
What We Did
- Working capital management – Improvements in the cash management;
- Cost reduction – Reduction in primary, secondary and tertiary expenditure;
- Sales price improvement – Improvement in prices charged and achieved;
- Margin improvement – A plan to sell current and new products more profitably.
The Outcomes
- Changes made to the underlying cost structure of the company has resulted in the savings already made continuing to increase and transition in to a profitable trading position.
MANUFACTURING
DISTRIBUTION
Specialist Distribution
“ The different way of looking at the problem on warehousing led us down a route I did not initially imagine, On reflection it was were we needed to be and allowed us to further develop our growth”
The Drivers
- A listed plc with a market cap close to £100m was in its early years of growth. At £30m+ turnover it was having to deal with the stresses of accelerated growth and the by-product of a large amount of working capital tied up in stock.
- The Finance Director was looking to disconnect the rate of growth from the rate of increasing stock while assessing property requirements for the next period of growth.
What We Did
- Stock
- An initial focus on reducing current stock holdings by SKU to allow us to assess the true warehouse requirements
- Followed by a detailed assessment of demand planning, future new product development, channel capacity and sales growth
- Introduction of a low cost ERP solution and the recruitment of a supply chain manager
- Costs – Costs were reduced in a structured manner, decreasing the stock holding costs by over 20%; this included the introduction of buffer stocks with suppliers in Europe in order to alleviate pressure on warehousing capacity in the UK
- Cash management – The working capital cycle was enhanced, resulting in any excess stocks being worked through the system, returned to suppliers and repurposed internationally
The Outcomes
- Stock values reduced 20% while growth continued at 20%;
- Warehouse relocation was reviewed and pushed back to allow more time to get the correct facility and location. This deferred a £2m capital expenditure spend by at least two years
- Working capital reduction of over £200k over the first year
- Appointment of dedicated resource to mange supply chain and act as the “linchpin” between demand planning, sales, warehousing and finance
Packaging & Logistics
“We would not be here today where it not for the EPIC team. Using a collegic approach has helped our people grow. They are working through our corporate processes and assisting us to remove problem issues”
The Drivers
Losing a key global customer, suffering from high staff turnover and declining profitability, this business was at the threshold of declaring bankruptcy and ceasing trading.
What We Did
We advised and supported the company’s move into a CVA to move them away from their compounded losses and secured stakeholder and financing support.
We worked closely with external stakeholders and the management team to restructure the business, removing non value-added divisions, strategically refocusing the business activity and delivering an improvement plan, which defined implementable solutions focused on the following key areas:
- Lowering Costs – monthly costs deceased by 58% and have included the relocation to a rebranded site that accommodate fast growth in a planned manner
- Increasing Charges – we developed a pricing strategy to support accelerated business growth
- Robust Cash management – we provided tools and methodologies to manage cash, ensuring that supply materials can be maintained and ongoing and profitable growth can be delivered
- Growing Sales – we delivered a full rebrand and developed a growth strategy based around disruptive marketing delivered through digital channels, working with the team on its delivery
The Outcomes
- Monthly operating costs deceased by 58%
- The new pricing strategy delivered gross margin increases of over 20% in 12 months
- The working capital cycle was reduced by 15 days through stock rationalisation, supplier management and debt management
- The sales and marketing efforts delivered an increase in new customers of 23% in the first year an a 46% growth in sales on the previous year
PACKAGING & LOGISTICS
European Logistics & Distribution
European Logistics & Distribution
“The EPIC team have brought focus and direction and delivered significant improvements in a very short time. They have taken the current management on a journey”
The Drivers
- Part of a large global manufacturing and distribution conglomerate, this £30m+ turnover business with a UK-wide distribution network was losing £2.4m in its last financial accounts following the merger of two UK companies
- The failure of its integration strategy led the Group to appoint a Big 4 consulting team to produce a turnaround plan
- The output from the plan was directionally correct but operationally implausible
- We were asked to look at delivering a transformation of the business to make it fit for purpose for the next 5 years
What We Did
We reviewed, in depth, the external consultancy report, extracting elements that could add value and simplifying the distribution model and its communication.
A detailed change plan was developed, based on risk and rewards from each action and an operational change team was appointed, equipping them with tools and methodologies to manage the cash throughout this process, ensuring that we can maintain supply and deliver a profitable growth.
A complete rebrand was undertaken, defining the company’s identity and introducing structured processes to their marketing activities, delivering an outsourced marketing solution during this transition period.
- Sales – We supported senior management in restructuring the sales team, rolling out a national and regional approach to their account management, segmenting their customer base and developing specific sales plans for each customer type; homogenous SLA standards were introduced across all the sites and operations.
- Pricing – A full pricing and margin review was undertaken to assess the current levels of GP% by customer type and product type. A customer profitability strategy was developed that has seen margins increase by 15% in 6 month
- Working Capital Management – We utilised our data analysis tools to establish the areas where the business was absorbing cash, creating a cash collection and stock reduction programme which released over £500k in 6 months and saw stock reduced by 15%
- Costs – We introduced a formal procurement programme for overheads and good for resale. This included developing the supply chain team and turning it from order placing to a profit centre
The Outcomes
The project is currently still live, however, large milestones have been achieved including growing the customer base, restructuring the teams, appointing key roles within the business, reducing losses, despite the pandemic and Brexit and growing the company profitability.
Near Field Communications Technology
“Great support and corralling that kept us on message and allowed us to flourish in all areas of our business in the exciting first part of our journey to transform gas safety”
The Drivers
- A start up company driven by a serial entrepreneur was looking for a way to undertake an accelerated growth curve eventually leading to venture capital investment.
- The EPIC team supported the company from concept through to first round funding to today becoming a successful business with a market valuation of over £25m having secured substantial external investment
What We Did
We took the company through our foundations for growth approach that essentially looked at the way it should be structured and how it could target its marketplace most effectively.
- Sales – The management team was supported to develop a robust model for growth. Our marketing consultants and modelling team created an interactive model that illustrated the growth journey and allowed for different scenario planning, prioritisation and key resource allocation
- Strategy – We defined a number of areas where we could formally support the business, attending their operational board meetings, assessing and challenging proposed plans and developments to ensure all investment decisions directly added to the future value of the of the company
- Funding – Working in partnership with one of the UK’s leading accountancy firms, we assisted the company in all areas of corporate stewardship acting as a “simplifier” to get action achieved at the lowest possible cost. We also worked with a number of investors to help the company perfect their pitch to the market
The Outcomes
- The production of a robust and formalised plan
- The delivery of a flexible and adaptable business plan model
- A support network to guide the team through any teething problems that a new transformative business may encounter
TECHNOLOGY
Exit Strategies
Entrepreneurs build businesses for a number of reasons – often exiting those businesses is a low priority until you decide you want or need to sell.
Here are some examples of businesses we’re helped become exit-ready.
Travel
What we did? A combination of a transformation assignment, family shareholders management complications, bank extraction and a company sale, allowed us to enact :
- A radical introduction of our EPIC approach changing over 65 operations and processes in the business.
- Enhancing gross margins by over 25% and reassessing locations and staffing to get the business fit for both expansion and for sale
- Support the bank relationship communicating the changes and sale plan
- Sourced potential targets alongside a Corporate Finance team
Client benefit – A successful exit and retirement
Data Storage
What we did? Undertook a pricing review to assess how we could assist the company is charging more for its services. Through a number of interactive sessions the following outputs were delivered:
- Identification of 15 charge points within the service offering which saw gross profit increase by 30%
- Identification of a number of non value added activities that were neither chargeable of required in the marketplace – thereby reducing costs through increased throughput of documents scanned by 10%
Client benefit – Substantial increase in gross margin and throughput allowing the business to further expand before being targeted by a global storage competitor
High-end Retail
What we did? A historical successful retail chain that was asset rich but continued to require ever increasing level of working capital. Banking concern led to a stock transformation approach
- Stock acquisition and management process redesigned
- Stock analysed and restructured ready for realisation
- Development of an automated time and benefit based costs management system o identify future potential issues
- A 5 stage stock process developed through to a final benefit of product destruction and realising value minerals of metals
Client benefit – Stock reduced by over 30% – £150k of cash generated in 3 months. A family realisation that an exit was required with the funds to invest in corporate fiancé support
Specialised Manufacturing
What we did?A nigh tolerance UK manufacturer producing goods globally for the defence industry found itself exposed after an unfeasible and unexplainable cancellation of its long term contract:
- An assessment of the cost of termination tom include a formal assessment by a third party auditor of the sunk costs of assets not recovered
- The preparation of a professional services document that was used initially to instigate a consultation process
- Sourcing an litigator and commercial support in preparing documentation and client responses to an aggressive large global company
- Mediation support that resulted in a satisfactory result for the client
Client benefit – Commercial support throughout underpinned by good knowledge of market specialist in litigation and mediation
EXIT READY
STRATEGY
Strategy
Each of the case studies below illustrate the practicality of our approach and why clients adopt the methods so quickly
Green Energy
What we did?Undertook a review of a University research project to assess its commercial viability. This included:
- Market assessment
- Business model mapping
- Comparable competitive market product review
Client benefit – Suggested a new way of creating returns on the research that led to a licencing revenue stream
Big Data
What we did?Supported a management team in spinning out a “big data” unstructured document file system that allowed mapping of data and the linkages between this data:
- Assistance in preparing a market approach
- Development of business plan and support via Corporate Finance of 1st round funding
- Identification of core markets for growth and developing a plan to exploit these areas
Client benefit – identified £7m of inventory reduction opportunities to release cash back into the balance sheet
Green Energy production and installation
What we did?Fast growth company diagnostic to establish the need
- Assist with fund raising presentation
- Cash flow analysis for project vs OPEX expenditure
- Art of possible plan to grow 10 fold in 3 years
- Audit assessment to remove shareholder issue
Client benefit – £3m government loan fund raising removed shareholder/control issue undertook.
Specialist Chemicals
What we did?Undertook a strategy workshop using our methodology to help the company clearly address the following:
- What was its effective markets, what were there quantum and how could they address the competition
- How could the brand bring together its different divisions under a wholistic market facing proposition
- How did the business transform in new product development, its speed to market and alignment to customers
- How could products be further internationalised reducing the dependence on UK dominance
Client benefit – A 2 year business plan that illustrated the corporate focus on investment, increased sales growth and profitability
Transformation
Each of the case studies below illustrate the practicality of our approach and why clients adopt the methods so quickly
SME gowth
What we did?Development of a formal assessment and training programme with a LEP to allow SMEs that had high growth potential to accelerate their success:
- Two day assessment and development programme
- Included our EPIC apporoach for business model mapping
- Offered access to HNW investors to test proposition before VC presentations
Client benefit – Structured programme that was aimed at devilvering SME expansiona nd therefore employment in an urban conerbation
Medical Technology
What we did?As part of a multi-disciplined team we assessed the cost benefit of a software management system for hospital being spun out of health trust to allow the solution to be sold more throughout the NHS and globally:
- Assistance in preparing a spin out approach
- Development of business plan and support via Corporate Finance of 1st round funding
- Identification of core markets for growth and developing a plan to exploit these areas
Client benefit – Supported the management team in getting support from the trust but ensured compliance of good govermenc required when associated with public funds
Historic hospitality and Leisure
What we did?Supporting eth internal team in developing a 5 year commercial plan to spin out a historic leisure facility from the local council
- Initial assessed current business model
- Developed a route map for change and financial development
- Art of possible plan to grow 3 fold in 5 years
- Supported the presentation of a full hearing at the local and county council level
Client benefit– £500k improvement in the leisure faciilty returning a profit. Plus a 5 year plan to required assets and develop a wholistic healthcare facility the first of its kind in the UK
University spin outs
What we did?Over the years we have been actively involved in spin out assessments and spin out companies for various Unversities, this has included strategy support in:
- Strategic support in realigning a Crypto product towards the Internet of things (IOT) and the industrial IOT
- Formal assessment of a plymer dying technology away from haircare into a licenced model for inteligent machine parts
- A early big data solution that used graphical respresentation to map unstructured data in the professional services industry – supported through 1st phase and 2nd phase fund raising
- A small wind turbine business smdoel and market assessment that concluded the market proposition did not have the furture potential to produce the rteurns
Client benefit – Commerical assessment of the products, its markets, its business plan and chances of success thereby ensuring that Univeristy Impact assessment is positive
TRANSFORMATION
