Results
Despite large scale M&A activity, the organisation was still set up as a group of unrelated businesses, clustered under three main brands – Campbell Dallas, Wilkins Kennedy and Baldwins Group.
Within the Baldwins group, there were also a number of acquired businesses that were still in transition from their existing brands to the Baldwins brand. We looked at this in the context of CogitalGroup, the owners, aiming to sell the group, along with two other brands, Azets and Blick Rothenberg. We outlined the value of all of the businesses coming together under one brand, communicating a clear message to the market, and set out the business rationale highlighting the benefits the group would receive from brand alignment and how it supported their objective(s). Our team, then created a framework and roadmap for how the alignment could be achieved across the businesses with maximum cost and time efficiency. In addition, we helped Baldwins spot a clear market opportunity, identifying that the entrepreneurial, owner-driver, family, independent business markets were being underserviced by large accountants racing to pick up ‘scraps’ from the break-up of the big 4 on PLC and Government audit work. We were also able to demonstrate that this underserviced market is not only very strong and growing but also a natural fit with their existing client base, their local service delivery focus and broad service line offering.