Knowledge of one value chain, applied at every stage.
We invest in B2B and B2C consumer businesses where our experience gives us an edge in finding, assessing and building them.
Consumer products depend on a chain of specialist businesses long before they reach a shelf, and on brands that earn their place on it. Every stage shares the same end customers, the same quality standards and often the same strategic buyers. Knowing one stage well makes us better at the next.
Inputs
Ingredients and flavours
Flavour houses, botanical and specialist ingredient processors, whose formulation know how and customer relationships last for decades.
Packaging and specialist manufacturing
Closures, components, specialist packaging and contract production, where accreditation and engineering set the barrier to entry.
Value added services
Technical and scientific services
Testing and analytical laboratories, sensory and consumer research, quality, safety and regulatory services that brand owners rely on and rarely change.
Specialist storage
Bonded and maturation warehousing, temperature controlled and regulated storage, for products that gain value over time or must be kept to exacting standards.
Brands
Consumer brands
Established branded businesses with loyal customers, sound margins and room to grow in new channels and international markets.
Markets
Beverages, food, personal and home care, and pet care, with particular depth in premium and specialist categories.
Where new ownership creates the most value.
Corporate carve outs
Non core brands and businesses inside larger groups, with scope for geographic and portfolio expansion through sharper focus and better allocation of resources. Our team has originated and completed carve outs from multinational consumer groups, including Compass Box Whisky from Bacardi, and managed disposals from inside them.
Founder and family businesses
Established, privately owned companies ready to grow with new capital and industry knowledge, often at a moment of succession.
Businesses ready to scale
Companies with an advantaged route to market or a technical edge that need capital, professional systems and a team to take them further.
AI built into how our businesses sell, make and report.
We treat artificial intelligence as operating infrastructure rather than a side project. At Compass Box Whisky we have built it into the commercial engine of the business, and we bring the same capability, and the people who built it, to every company we own.
A targeting model across hundreds of thousands of licensed venues, combining licensing records, local demographics and account history to find the outlets most like a brand's best customers.
A purpose built CRM in which AI reads every call note and reply, assesses each lead and publishes the day's commercial priorities to the sales team.
Bespoke cocktail menu proposals generated for individual bars and restaurants, showing each venue how the brand would sit on its own menu.
Calls and replies analysed at scale for objections, pricing signals and what converts, in every market where we sell.
Demand and working capital forecasting, formulation and quality documentation, and pricing and customer profitability for our B2B businesses.
Every initiative sits in the value creation plan with an owner, a budget and a return, and is reviewed at board level.
Eight levers, worked on alongside management.
We are hands on owners. Our team has run the functions behind these levers inside consumer and drinks companies, and we work on them directly with each management team rather than through consultants.
Geographic expansion
Taking underinvested products and services into new markets and new customers.
Differentiated route to market
Optimising distribution and choosing the channels that create the most visibility and demand.
Portfolio development
An innovation pipeline of new products, formats and services that opens new occasions and customers.
Brand building and premiumisation
Brand expertise for smaller brands with strong potential, and value based pricing for B2B offers.
Technical expertise
World class production and operations experts to optimise the supply chain and drive efficiency.
Financial discipline
Pricing, stock management and working capital, with reporting to institutional standards.
Applied intelligence
AI built into targeting, sales, forecasting, development and quality, as proven at Compass Box.
Building the management team
Our industry networks used to recruit and develop the best management talent.
Clear parameters, applied with judgement.
| Revenue | £20m to £100m |
| EBITDA | £5m to £20m |
| Position | Control or majority |
| Model | B2B suppliers and service providers; B2C brands |
| Ownership | Founder, family, cooperative or corporate owned |
| Regions | UK, Western Europe, USA |
| Profile | Cash generative, clearly differentiated, no previous private equity ownership |
| Not for us | Turnarounds, minority stakes, early stage ventures |
