Coast2Coast’s invests in local businesses which have 3 key characteristics:
1. Defensible – The company must be easy to understand and have limited competition
2. Brand – The company should preferably have a strong brand which enables it to make good returns (operating profit margin >15%)
3. Mature and Profitable – minimum annual profit > R10million (sales > R30million) and a track record of over 10 years
C2C looks for companies with competent and honest managers and investment is currently focused on businesses which operate in the consumer products ("FMCG") sector (foods, personal care and homecare products). C2C prefer to acquire at least 80% of a company with management retaining the balance.
1. Defensible – The company must be easy to understand and have limited competition
2. Brand – The company should preferably have a strong brand which enables it to make good returns (operating profit margin >15%)
3. Mature and Profitable – minimum annual profit > R10million (sales > R30million) and a track record of over 10 years
C2C looks for companies with competent and honest managers and investment is currently focused on businesses which operate in the consumer products ("FMCG") sector (foods, personal care and homecare products). C2C prefer to acquire at least 80% of a company with management retaining the balance.
A brief note to potential sellers – From Cris and Gary:
Most business owners spend the better part of their lifetimes building their businesses. By experience built upon endless repetition, they sharpen their skills in merchandising, purchasing, personnel selection, etc. It’s a learning process and mistakes made in one year often contribute to competence and success in succeeding years. In contrast, owner–managers sell their business only once – frequently in an emotionally charged atmosphere with multitude of pressures coming from different directions.
If the sole motive of the present owners is to cash in their chips and put the business behind them – and plenty of sellers fall in this category – other types of buyers should be satisfactory. But if the seller’s business represents the creative work of a lifetime and forms an integral part of their personality and sense of being, C2C may be the best option as a buyer.
C2C is a rather unusual type of buyer as we buy to keep, but we don’t have, and don’t expect to have, operating people in our parent organization. All of the businesses we own are run autonomously to an extraordinary degree. You would know exactly with whom you are dealing in the future. You would not have one executive negotiate the deal only to have someone else in charge a few years later, or have the president regretfully tell you that his board of directors required this change or that (or possibly required the sale of your business to finance some new interest of the parent’s).
If you have any possible interest in selling, we would appreciate your call and we believe we would have just as much fun running the business over the next 20 years as you have had during the past 20.
Most business owners spend the better part of their lifetimes building their businesses. By experience built upon endless repetition, they sharpen their skills in merchandising, purchasing, personnel selection, etc. It’s a learning process and mistakes made in one year often contribute to competence and success in succeeding years. In contrast, owner–managers sell their business only once – frequently in an emotionally charged atmosphere with multitude of pressures coming from different directions.
If the sole motive of the present owners is to cash in their chips and put the business behind them – and plenty of sellers fall in this category – other types of buyers should be satisfactory. But if the seller’s business represents the creative work of a lifetime and forms an integral part of their personality and sense of being, C2C may be the best option as a buyer.
C2C is a rather unusual type of buyer as we buy to keep, but we don’t have, and don’t expect to have, operating people in our parent organization. All of the businesses we own are run autonomously to an extraordinary degree. You would know exactly with whom you are dealing in the future. You would not have one executive negotiate the deal only to have someone else in charge a few years later, or have the president regretfully tell you that his board of directors required this change or that (or possibly required the sale of your business to finance some new interest of the parent’s).
If you have any possible interest in selling, we would appreciate your call and we believe we would have just as much fun running the business over the next 20 years as you have had during the past 20.