End‑to‑end commercial support driving growth and exit value
Private equity value creation
MDS Strategy supported a PE‑backed business through a full value‑creation cycle — from setting the growth strategy and identifying the core levers, to diligencing a bolt‑on and supporting the final exit. The work provided a clear commercial narrative and a robust fact base that underpinned both execution and sale.
Growth
strategy
Defined a focused growth strategy for management and a clear, credible vision for future owners.
In a market increasingly dominated by large international disruptors, MDS Strategy demonstrated how a legacy operator could defend its niche and unlock growth.
Key pillars of work:
- Needs‑based market sizing .
- Primary research and competitor mapping to twa strength of the proposition.
- Customer and supplier surveey to identify the model elements required to retain and “win back” lost business.
- Sized share of wallet at account and industry level to support precise commercial prioritisation.
Operational
strategy
Applied structured analysis to address supplier challenges that constrained growth and service.
Worked with management to address pain points in supplier recruitment, conversion, onboarding and retention and new targeted resourcing.
Key pillars of work:
- Demonstrated critical link between supplier operations and customer outcomes.
- Identified supplier decision‑making and the pain points driving churn.
- Benchmarked supplier economics.
- Worked with management to design targeted solutions and deploy new resources.
Bolt-on
CDD
Supported a successful bolt‑on acquisition, demonstrating substantial synergies and a strong return profile.
As the client already understood the market well, work focused on validating the target’s proposition, quantifying synergies and testing returns under multiple cases.
Key pillars of work:
- Analysed internal data to test value drivers from both supply‑side and demand‑side perspectives.
- Assessed the strength of the customer proposition through targeted survey work.
- Evaluated supplier loyalty, integration risks and potential dis‑synergies.
- Mapped operations to quantify cost synergies and integration feasibility.
Vendor
support
Supported a successful sale of the business, achieving a strong exit.
Worked closely with the executive team throughout the sales process, ensuring the strategy, diligence and value‑creation story were tightly aligned.
Key pillars of work:
- Built the M&A pipeline and modelled potential value to demonstrate buy‑and‑build opportunity.
- Managed third‑party CDD advisors, using existing strategy work as the core fact base.
- Leveraged strategic insights to strengthen the IM and management presentation.
- Delivered targeted analysis during exclusivity to support valuation and buyer confidence.