Insight: Our approach to bolt-ons

Our approach to bolt-ons: At Sullivan Street Partners, we believe that good integration comes from a good acquisition process. Too often, bolt-on acquisitions are treated as a mathematical and mechanical means of growing an existing portfolio company. However, at Sullivan Street, we treat bolt-ons as individual organisations, with much more to bring to the culture and operations of our portfolio company, rather than simply a vehicle for expansion.

When considering a company’s future and accompanying strategy plans, we consider the acquisition’s ethos, culture, people, and the elements it aims to preserve. We do this by having candid conversations with any new business to understand its operational strategy, as well as what the company is hoping to achieve.

Once we have successfully identified the growth strategies of both enterprises, we can then consider how to bring the two entities together. We rely first and foremost on the management teams of our portfolio companies to achieve this – we only ever embark on a bolt-on strategy once we have full confidence in said team. Beyond that, we depend on our forward-looking, pragmatic, and operational approach to help us advise management on which services should retain their differences, and which should be merged.

Layton Tamberlin, Managing Partner and Co-Founder said: “At Sullivan Street, we work with businesses with whom we truly resonate. It is of the utmost importance to honour the original management team’s hard work and retain its high-calibre staff. We do so by considering operational realities throughout the process, and by doing our best to preserve the qualities that initially attracted us to the company. Similarly, we would always advise sellers to fully grasp their buyer’s understanding of the company – to guarantee that they appreciate and respect the company’s core mission.”