Cooper Parry Corporate Finance were recommended to us by the law firm, Geldards. You see, we started by talking to the lawyers before anyone else. We asked them for three or four corporate finance companies, and Cooper Parry Corporate Finance were one of those.
“You understood us a little bit better”
Compared to the other firms we approached, you understood us a little bit better. The others seemed a bit more corporate and city orientated. We just got the impression they wouldn’t get to know us or the business quite as well.
We first got to know Andy and James from Cooper Parry. They wanted to know to get to know us. We could sense that they were excited.
We were looking for someone to hold our hand. We’re all working guys if you know what I mean
It was a new area for us and my partners. We were feeling our way into it. That’s why it was important to us that they Andy and James wanted to get to know us.
These weren’t the circles we were used to moving in. We needed a hand. Cooper Parry understood us and made it easy. I led the process and had backup from my partners, Tony and Peter, especially in the bigger management and strategy meetings.
Finding a buyer turned out how I expected
We quickly whittled potential buyers down to four or five that we got a good feeling for. Andy was particularly helpful at guiding us through those meetings with the interested parties.
We went through this process until we’d all decided who to go with. You gave us some important advice along the way. The vendor due diligence was very useful, especially discussing the pros and cons of the future owner of our business. We eventually found a US buyer and a UK Private Equity House, and we could only choose one.
They were there for us 24 hours a day
We really valued the commitment from James and Andy. They were there for us 24 hours a day, always there to pick up the phone and spent a lot of time in our office. It was the backup from those two guys we appreciated. After all, we had a business to run too.
It certainly helped that we were going through a record year too. Each month, James would ask us, “How’s the balance sheets?”. We were lucky enough to be able to keep on saying, “Yes, another record month!”
And then there was Brexit…
I eventually took a step back from the business side of things to help with the sale. It started to get quite complicated as three UK companies were merging with one from the US. This took time. And then there was Brexit…
Brexit and the news surrounding it was a big challenge. We had to convince the buyers that we were still a worthwhile business to get involved with. We had a lot of help from James and Andy with this. They were resilient, and their experience pulled us through.
James and Andy’s helped us with staying positive. Because of how they acted and behaved, we always thought the deal was going to happen. We never thought it was pie in the sky.
James and Andy held our hands through the process
We’re all still part of the business. The same team. We chose to sell to US trade in the end and the Americans haven’t interfered too much. They’ve been pretty good.
Tony, Peter and I were very pleased at the service we received from Cooper Parry Corporate Finance. We worked very closely with Geldards too. But it was James and Andy held our hands and guided us through it
