Realising that a massive bank loan is unnecessary to acquire a business had a profound impact on Aled. Discover how he bought a competitor, sold the redundant assets to break even in two weeks, and dramatically scaled his family business.
For years, Aled was keen on expanding his family's clothing and textile printing business, but he assumed organic growth was the only possible route for SMEs. He believed that acquiring other businesses was a strategy reserved strictly for massive corporations with unlimited bank funding.
The business was already facing severe challenges. A devastating fire nearly shut their doors. Less than a year after recovering and finding new premises, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The national lockdown caused their sportswear division, which represented 40% of their turnover, to vanish almost overnight.
Aled used this lockdown downtime to educate himself. He realized that trying to grow organically was incredibly tough, and he needed a way to break through their revenue ceiling without spending huge amounts of capital.
"The deferred payments thing was a big eye-opener. I always thought people who bought companies had to take on some sort of bank finance or a massive loan. I didn't want to put us in that position."
Armed with his new knowledge, Aled sent direct enquiry letters to companies offering similar or complementary products. He sent out a couple of hundred letters and was shocked to receive around 15 positive responses.
He found a perfect bolt-on target: a small, home-based embroidery and printing business with a great website and recurring corporate contracts. Aled made an offer, but the vendor pushed back, demanding the entire payment as a lump sum.
Because Aled had built a strong pipeline of other potential deals, he was not desperate. He simply thanked the vendor and walked away. Exactly one week later, the vendor emailed him back. The vendor conceded, agreeing to Aled's original offer and accepting deferred payments spread over 12 months.
Having multiple deal options gave Aled the leverage to walk away — and that's what changed everything.
The true brilliance of Aled's deal was in the immediate aftermath. Because his family business already possessed top-tier printing facilities, he did not actually need the vendor's physical equipment.
He immediately sold the acquired assets and machinery. The cash generated from this rapid asset sale completely covered the initial upfront payment. Within just two weeks of signing the paperwork, Aled was entirely back to break-even.
Aled's in-house sales team took over the acquired customer list and began cross-selling their expanded services. Because the previous owner had limited capacity, these customers were massively under-served.
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