There’s a better way
Finding the best acquisition targets for your company shouldn’t be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Instead of buying mailing lists and making cold calls, you can improve your deal flow management by working with a sell-side advisor within a targeted industry.
As a business strategist and advisor to owners of printing-related businesses, I often introduce investors to business owners who I know are ready to sell. These warm introductions are infinitely more effective than getting a cold call asking if the business might be for sale in the near future. My clients trust me to act in their best interest.
Here’s what the LaManna Consulting Group can provide to investors in private companies:
Connections. I am a lifetime member of the printing industry. In addition to running, growing, and selling printing-related businesses, I have been writing a business column for Label & Narrow Web (LN&W) magazine since 2012.
Plus, I make presentations at national and international printing-related conferences. Most recently, I led a session at the global FuturePrint Virtual Summit hosted in June 2020 by FM Futures in Surrey, England. More than 1,560 executives from 65 countries attended.
Through my blog and podcasts, I encourage business owners to begin upgrading their business operations long before they are ready to sell.
As a result of these thought leadership activities, printing business owners often contact me for advice on strategies to improve their operations and bottom-line numbers.
Synergy. Before introducing you to a business owner who may be ready to sell, I learn as much as possible about your specific business acquisition goals. Then I go through my network of potential sellers to find the best possible match (or matches).
We use a business matchmaking approach to refer potential sellers to buyers because we don’t want M&A deals to fail. We want every deal to meet the long-term objectives of both the buyer and the seller.
These objectives often aren’t that different. Buyers seek businesses that are well-positioned for growth and profitability. Sellers are looking forward to the next chapter in their lives, but also want the businesses they worked so hard to build to continue to prosper.
Readiness. Some deals fall through when the owner gets cold feet. We coach our clients to be ready for the conflicting emotions they might experience as the sales process unfolds. Sometimes, we work with clients for months before they put the business up for sale. We help them identify upgrades in operational systems or business practices that will make them more attractive acquisition targets.
What Makes Printing Firms Attractive
After COVID-19, we expect to see a shakeout and consolidation in the printing business. Owners who haven’t fully embraced the ongoing digital transformation of printing may be seeking to exit the business.
In a September 2020 webinar, one successful label company owner noted that the printing business is quickly becoming more of a technology business. Companies that had already built up their workflow automation and variable-data printing capabilities adapted more quickly to the shifts in consumer behavior that occurred during the pandemic.
According to a September 2020 article by Sean Norris in Promo Marketing magazine, Amazon is investing $400 million to ramp up its in-house digital on-demand printing capabilities. This move puts printing business owners on notice that more technology-driven changes are on the way. Amazon understands the warehousing and waste-reduction benefits of not manufacturing customizable products until an order has been received. As the garment- and textile-printing equipment manufacturer Kornit describes it, we are moving from a supply-and-demand economy to a less wasteful ‘demand-and-supply’ form of manufacturing.
If your company might be interested in acquiring companies that have already started making the transition to digital printing and on-demand production, give me a call.