Goodfish Ltd was formed in June 2010 as a vehicle for making its first acquisition, which it completed in September 2010. Since then, Goodfish has made several bolt-on and strategic acquisitions, usually every two to four years.
As time has passed, we have developed a successful model of acquiring and integrating businesses that, since 2015, have close to doubled our size each time. Our latest acquisition, completed in October 2024, was no exception to this pattern.
As acquisitions have increased in size, they have generally taken longer to integrate, despite our integration touch being quite light – it is focused on implementing our standard ERP, finance, HR, maintenance and reporting systems. Our bespoke integration of these off-the-shelf, cloud-based systems is created by our in-house software developer, who is also a director of the Group. This is what we call our ‘secret sauce’; and it is how we manage a growing number of businesses without the need to duplicate overhead at each site.
When we acquire a business, we don’t rename it (unless we are required to as part of a carve-out from a larger organisation). This is because customers rarely appreciate having to register a ‘new’ supplier. And the owners of businesses who sell their pride and joy to us appreciate their creation retaining its identity; as their legacy. Our focus is not on building up the Goodfish name; it’s on business efficiency and customer service. That’s what matters to us.
The purpose of making acquisitions was originally to ‘scale up’ the business to give it purchasing power, to dilute central overhead and to make it more stable by being less dependent on any one or two customers or market segments. While we now believe we have reached a size that delivers these benefits, we can always achieve more through targeted, strategic acquisitions.
What is a ‘strategic’ or ‘targeted’ acquisition? Unlike a bolt-on acquisition that is normally smaller and might be moved into one of our existing businesses, a targeted or strategic acquisition is one which strengthens our position (increases our exposure to a sector or our geographic footprint or even a process technology) in an area where we feel we need to achieve more, faster than can be achieved through careful investment in organic opportunities.
If you are looking to merge your business into Goodfish and ‘bank’ what you and your team have achieved in the choppy waters of today’s business environment, without having to keep all your chips on the table, then feel free to contact our chief executive, Greg McDonald*.
If you’re not just wanting a chat but would like a same-day, indicative, cash-free/debt-free valuation of your business, then please have the following ten pieces of information to-hand when you call Greg McDonald or email [email protected]
- Your business’s turnover over the last three years (including whether there are any export sales and the split)
- Your gross margin over the last three years
- Your current, non-site-related annualised costs (ie overheads excluding rent/rates/other site fixed costs)
- Your level of depreciation over the last three years
- The top three market sectors you serve & the proportion of total sales these represent
- The percentage of total sales accounted for by the top five customers
- The total number of employees & total monthly wage bill
- Your business’s total assets, current assets & net assets (now & 12 months ago)
- Debtor days & credit days (average over the last three months)
- Your company number
*01283 384344
