CASE STUDIES
Proven Results, Protected Identities
Real transactions, real outcomes - handled with absolute discretion
The following case studies demonstrate our methodology and results. Details have been anonymised because protecting your story matters more than promoting ours.
Confidentiality isn't just a promise - it's the foundation of every partnership we build.
Our track record speaks to our capability, but our commitment to absolute discretion is non-negotiable.
Every client we work with is navigating one of the most sensitive periods in their business’s history.
The case studies below have been carefully anonymised to protect client identities while demonstrating our methodology, the challenges we navigate, and the outcomes we deliver. Where specific details have been removed or generalised, it’s because discretion matters more than marketing.
This is how we’d protect your story too.
Multi-business portfolio sale
Controlled exit under severe time constraints
How operator-led decisiveness and transactional expertise delivered a controlled outcome when traditional M&A timelines were impossible.
The situation:
A business owner faced a stark ultimatum from secured creditors: find buyers for an interconnected portfolio of businesses within an extremely tight timeframe, or face formal proceedings. The businesses were financially and operationally intertwined, creating significant structural complexity.
Traditional M&A timelines would have taken months. We had days.
Through rapid on-site assessment, hard commercial decisions, and intensive execution, we structured and completed transactions that preserved viable businesses, protected jobs, satisfied secured creditors, and allowed the owner to exit with a reputation intact.
The company:
The portfolio comprised multiple interconnected businesses built over decades, spanning different but complementary sectors. On paper, the integration made strategic sense. In practice, changing market conditions had turned that integration into a structural liability.
Some businesses faced declining revenues. Others carried debt secured against assets that were declining in value. The interdependencies meant that failure in one area threatened the entire portfolio.
The challenge:
Creditors issued a deadline. Find credible buyers immediately, or formal proceedings would begin.
But this wasn’t a simple sale. The businesses were operationally and financially intertwined, with shared resources, cross-guarantees, and complex debt structures. Disentangling them, conducting due diligence, and securing buyers in such a compressed timeframe felt impossible. Yet the alternative was worse.
Our role:
We embedded ourselves immediately. Not in a boardroom, but on-site, working directly with the operational teams to understand the true financial position of each entity.
The hard decision (Phase 1):
We couldn’t save everything. Some elements were unsellable in the timeframe and would derail the entire process. Our recommendation was direct: focus on the viable core businesses and structure deals that satisfied secured creditors.
Targeted execution (Phase 2):
We leveraged our network to identify buyers who could move at speed – competitors looking to expand, investors specialising in distressed acquisitions. We approached them directly with compelling, time-sensitive opportunities.
Intensive negotiation (Phase 3):
We worked directly with buyers’ legal teams, cutting through unnecessary complexity. Contracts were simplified. Warranties were limited. Completion mechanisms were designed for speed, not perfection. It wasn’t elegant, but it worked.
Within the compressed deadline, we had signed heads of terms and funds cleared. Creditors were satisfied. Insolvency was avoided.
The result:
Multiple jobs were preserved and relationships with long-standing clients maintained. Viable businesses were stabilised under new management, with non-performing elements addressed systematically while performing assets generated returns for buyers.
The strategic value:
This case demonstrated the core advantage of the operator-led model: the ability to make hard commercial calls under extreme pressure without endless committee meetings.
Traditional advisory firms would have spent crucial days conducting due diligence and building marketing materials. We spent it making strategic decisions about what was saleable, what wasn’t, and who could move fast enough to matter.
Corporate lawyers would have taken weeks to draft comprehensive sale agreements. We simplified deal structures to their commercial essence, accepted calculated risk, and prioritised execution over perfection.
This wasn’t a textbook exit. But textbook approaches don’t work when time has run out.
Surfacing and Civil Engineering Contractor
Startup advisory, operational structuring and growth advice
This transaction demonstrates our ability to successfully navigate complex, multi-entity sales to strategic and institutional buyers in the infrastructure services sector.
The company:
A startup regional contractor with a clear mission: to deliver high-quality, compliant, and sustainable solutions across their target markets. The founders had identified a genuine gap in the market and had an ambitious vision to become a trusted partner for major clients in their sector.
Their positioning was smart. They planned to blend institutional-grade compliance standards with SME-level agility, offering clients a comprehensive service that would provide complete accountability from start to finish. This was exactly the kind of differentiated value proposition that could attract major contractors and blue-chip clients.
But vision and business plans are one thing. Execution is another.
The challenge:
The founders had solid industry experience and a well-thought-through business plan with clear first-year targets. What they needed was strategic guidance to transform that plan into operational reality – the kind of hands-on advisory support that goes beyond generic startup advice.
They needed someone who understood the realities of running a contracting business, could help structure operations for sustainable growth, and knew how to position the company to win the right partnerships from the outset.
Our approach:
We provided ongoing advisory support during the critical startup phase, working directly with the leadership team to build the operational and strategic foundations the business needed. This wasn’t a short-term consulting project. We remained engaged as the business grew, providing continuity and accountability.
This wasn’t theoretical consulting. We helped establish systems, processes, and structures that would allow the business to maintain the agility of an SME whilst meeting the compliance and quality standards that major contractors demand. We focused on sustainable growth rather than just rapid expansion – building something that could scale properly.
The strategic positioning work was crucial. We helped refine how the business presented itself to the market, ensuring the unique value proposition was clear and compelling to the target client base.
The result:
The strategic value:
This engagement demonstrates an often-overlooked aspect of our work. The operator-led methodology isn’t just about preparing businesses for exit. It’s about applying the same pragmatic, hands-on approach to help founders build businesses that are structured correctly from the beginning.
By getting the fundamentals right early, these businesses avoid the costly restructuring work that many companies face later when they’re preparing for investment or sale. They’re built to scale, built to partner with larger organisations, and built with the kind of operational discipline that creates genuine value.
This company is now well-positioned for whatever comes next, whether that’s continued organic growth, raising investment, or eventually executing a strategic exit. That’s what proper foundations look like in practice.