A division of a Fortune 50 fast moving consumer goods company needed to rapidly integrate a culturally opposite and highly successful company with a strong household brand name. This acquisition was their largest one to date.

The London Perret Roche Group LLC was engaged to support them in successfully integrating the new acquisition, and help them meet all acquisition economics – something they had always fallen short of.

LPR’s Charter
We were asked to support the combined enterprise

  • beat acquisition economics, with 100% retention of staff,
  • produce a seamless integration of culture and processes,
  • rationalize product lines, and 
  • improve both market share and margins. Furthermore,
  • to do this in 12 months rather than the 24 months that a successful merger was predicated on.

Potential Problems
The acquirer was an old established, R&D-driven marketing company with a conservative (staid) and bureaucratic culture.  The acquired company was a household brand name with an outstanding track record. It was marketing-focused, creative and comparatively unstructured.  Furthermore, it was headquartered in a highly desirable location, and was required to move to the considerably less attractive location of the acquirer – not an exciting prospect for its leadership.

While the synergies were obvious, equally obvious were the challenges raised by the integration of the two companies.  Not handled well, these challenges would inevitably lead to yet another acquisition failing to realize its acquisition economics. 

The company’s history in integrating acquisitions was not great. The issues they had faced historically were: loss of key executives, lost market momentum from the acquired company, missed acquisition economics and fewer operational synergies than what they counted on.

The Results
We worked for a period of a year, mostly - but not exclusively - with an "extended leadership team" of 45 executives pulled from both organizations. All objectives were met, except for the 100% staff retention - one senior executive left on maternity leave and decided not to return to her career.

This project was regarded by the company as one of the most successful and fastest integrations achieved to date.

 

 

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