At this year’s M&A West event, Huebner Marketing had the privilege of hosting a dynamic panel discussion on brand equity strategies. The panel featured industry experts and thought leaders who shared invaluable insights on driving success through effective brand management in mergers and acquisitions. We’re proud to share the content of that discussion here and grateful to JP Morgan Chase for co-sponsoring the conversation and ACG San Francisco for hosting the wonderful event.

Building Brands, Driving Value: The Marketing Advantage in M&A

Our panelists delved into the importance of incorporating brand building early in the deal-making process, emphasizing the significant impact it can have on the outcome of M&A transactions. From enhancing brand positioning to navigating internal and external communications strategies during acquisitions, the discussion was both enlightening and actionable.

Featured Panelists:

• Ches Riley – Founder and Managing Director, BlackArch Partners 
• Tom Casey – Co-Founder and CIO, CORE X Partners
• Helen Keplinger – Owner, Keplinger Wines
• Ashton Belk – President, Huebner Marketing

Moderated by Abby Fraser – VP of Client Services at Huebner Marketing:

For those who missed the live panel session or wish to revisit the enriching conversation, we are excited to share the recap video capturing the key takeaways and engaging moments of the event. Witness firsthand the thought-provoking discussions that unfolded during our panel.

 

To provide a comprehensive understanding of the insights shared during the panel discussion, we are thrilled to present the full transcript, below.

As we reflect on the enriching experience of hosting this panel at M&A West, we are excited to share the wealth of knowledge and expertise that our panelists brought to the table. The profound discussions and practical advice shared during the session serve as valuable resources for professionals looking to elevate their brand management strategies in the context of M&A activities.

Thank you for joining us on this enlightening journey into the world of brand equity strategies at M&A West.

Let’s Connect and Elevate Together!

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Panel Transcript

Ansie Ting 

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Ansie Ting, and I am with JPMorgan Chase. Our next panel, Building Brand Driving Value, will discuss the importance of brand equity. It is quite appropriate for us to introduce this interesting topic because, as most of us will agree, JP Morgan is a global brand in the financial sector. We’re the oldest and largest best-known financial institution. JP Morgan invests in best in best-in-class technology and people to serve our global corporate institutional clients.

In my line of work, the commercial bank, we not only offer business advice and strategies to help our mid-market companies grow. We also provide innovative Treasury solutions along with structuring creative financing solutions to help our company scale. In addition, we have a well-established sponsor group whose main focus is to work with our private equity partners and find creative ways to help manage portfolio companies. So, without further delay, I would like to introduce our moderator for this panel, Miss Abby Fraser. Abby is with Huebner Marketing, a premier firm specializing in transformative marketing and communication strategies in M&A. So, let’s welcome Abby. Thanks.

 

Abby Fraser  

Thanks, guys, for being here. Thank you, Ansie. And thanks to JPMorgan Chase for co-sponsoring this panel with us at Huebner Marketing. Now, it’s hard to say, so we usually just say HM, but thanks, Ansie. And thank you to ACG San Francisco, of course, for this beautiful event. And for really creating a space where we could have this conversation,. We’re very excited to be here.

My name is Abby Fraser. I’m a VP at Huebner Marketing. My background is in communication, strategy, and marketing, of course. So you can tell I’m excited about this topic. The topic actually came about really organically. As Ashton and our team were having conversations with the ACG community, we found that there was more interest and a greater impact in these conversations around branding and the power of brands and marketing in the M&A space. So we’re very excited to tackle that today.

Before we get started, I’d love to do some definitions. I’m an English major at heart and a word person. So when we’re talking about brand, today, we’re really talking about any company or organization not just direct to consumer or CPG, we’re talking about the brand and in a broader sense. When we define brand equity, we’re really measuring how your company is perceived in the market by the people that matter the most. So, your customers, your investors, your employees, and maybe even target buyers, we place a value on the association’s emotions and loyalty that those stakeholders feel when they hear your company’s name. In short, brand equity is the reason people do business with you instead of your competitors.

So it’s a really valuable aspect of your go-to-market strategy. And when you realize that equity and you really leverage it, it leads to tangible ROI. It can help you demand premium pricing, increase your market share, or build customer loyalty for your brands. It’s a really powerful aspect that may be undervalued in some of these conversations. In M&A, strong brand equity can impact valuation, internal alignment, your go-to-market strategy, and even your integration on the other side of a merger. So it’s a big deal. And we’re excited to have these experts with their experience to talk about it. In our line of work, we’re seeing more innovative deal teams and, and strategy teams really take advantage of this and see real results. So that’s what we want to get to today.

Let’s start by introducing our panelists, and then I’ll dig through their experience as well.

So we’ll start in the middle with Ches Riley, a founder and managing director at BlackArch Partners, a sell-side M&A firm out of Charlotte, North Carolina; Ches has over 20 years of experience in middle market transactions. He co-heads the BlackArch consumer and retail practice group, including significant transaction experience in food, beverage, and agribusiness, and a wide cross-section of additional industries, including distribution and supply chain management, industrial growth, and diversified manufacturing, applied technology, and digital media, and real estate. Prior to helping found BlackArch, Ches was a founder of Edgeview {artners and was with First Union securities m&a group, formerly Bowles Hollowell Conner. Ches earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Furman University, where he was on the Dean’s list and the varsity soccer team, and a master’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in finance from the Robinson School of Business at Georgia State University. He now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife, son, and daughter. So, thanks for coming to the West Coast.

 

Ches Riley  

Thanks, Abby. I think you meant to say a washed up soccer player.

 

Abby Fraser 

Yeah. Me too. Tom Casey is co-founder and chief investment officer of CORE X Partners, following a successful career as a business leader and entrepreneur. Founded in 2019, CORE X Partners has become a leading cold storage acquisition platform with 16 warehouses across the US and growing all the time. Before CORE X, Tom was co-founder, CIO, and CFO of Emergent Cold, which acquired seven companies and became Asia Pacific’s largest food cold storage company. Prior roles also include President and CEO of Wild Oats, president of American Apparel, and EVP and CFO of Blockbuster. Tom served for 20 years as an investment banker at leading Wall Street firms, including Deutsche Bank, Citi Group, and Merrill Lynch. He holds a BS in ocean engineering from the US Naval Academy, served as an officer on a nuclear submarine, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Glad you’re here, Tom, we’ll try to get to the nuclear stuff at some point.

Helen Keplinger is a highly acclaimed winemaker and owner of Keplinger Wines, recognized for her expertise in boutique luxury wine production and her emphasis on single-vineyard Rhône and Bordeaux varietal wines. After successfully completing the Masters program in Enology at the University of California, Davis, Helen honed her craft alongside industry luminaries, including Heidi Barrett, David Abreu, and Michel Rolland while launching her own brand in 2006. Her impressive career includes influential roles as a winemaker and consultant for esteemed wineries such as Kenzo Estate, Bryant Family Vineyard, and Arrow & Branch. She is currently the winemaker for Grace Family Vineyards and Kerr Cellars. Helen’s unwavering dedication to showcasing terroir and crafting exceptional wines has garnered noteworthy accolades, including the prestigious “Winemaker of the Year” title bestowed upon her by Food and Wine magazine in 2012, and the cover story of the Wine Spectator in 2014. In 2023, she further solidified her stature in the industry with another “Winemaker of the Year” recognition by renowned wine critic Antonio Galloni’s Vinous Media. We’re really happy to have a local representative here for the wine industry. And we’re going to be tasting Keplinger wines at the reception this afternoon, so be sure to come to that. Thank you, Abby,

 

Helen Keplinger 

Thank you for having me.

 

Abby Fraser

And finally, Ashton Belk is President of Huebner Marketing, a firm dedicated to transforming businesses through strategic marketing and communications for the past 35 years. The firm focuses on manufacturing and industrials, M&A, and multi-brand businesses. Prior to her time at HM, Ashton led marketing and production efforts at an Agile consulting firm, as Executive Producer of political summits for presidential candidates and past U.S. Presidents, and in production and creative roles for MTV Networks as well as a number of other editorial organizations. Ashton holds a BA in Journalism, Communication, and TV & Video Production from Colorado State University and is certified in Agile leadership and product ownership.

So, thanks for being here. I’m really excited to talk to all of these folks. We’ve had some great conversations leading up to this. So, I will try to get to all of our points. But I really wanted to start with the rich experience we have here on the panel, looking at what they’ve learned over time, what they’re seeing in the industry today and their specific pieces of the M&A landscape.

So, Tom, I’ll start with you. If we could start with what lessons you’ve learned in your past experiences with brands at Blockbuster, American Apparel, those kinds of things about brand building.

 

Tom Casey 

Thank you, Abby, and pleasure to be here. So the fun thing about brands, it’s about stories, right? How do brands get built, created, and grown? And what mistakes do they make? And so I’ve been fortunate to be part of a number of large brands.

Take Blockbuster, which I’ll just talk about for a second, was clearly an iconic global brand with 9,000 stores. You know, it was the elephant in the industry. And it’s interesting because you think about what what do brands do they speak to customers, they speak to the internal team, and they speak to potential partners acquisitions, and that’s really what I’m fortunate to do today. Blockbuster certainly built a gigantic brand, but where they failed really was and obviously, this before my time, but in any case, you know, obviously, we all have wonderful memories of going to the store on a Friday night for the treasure hunt for the movie that was just released on DVD, but they were out of stock. And he brought it back late, and they ripped you off on late fees. So just some really fundamental problems there. And as far as acquiring companies, you know, they would basically it was an acquisition platform, they would go to family businesses in the DVD rental business and say, if you don’t sell to us, we’re going to open next door. And they did that time and time again. And that’s, that’s how Blockbuster was built.

And so and the other thing it takes for brands is capital. And they had the problem in 2005. Of doing by the way, there’s a documentary on this in Netflix, which I’m in, but they, they did a spin off to shareholders, they took out a $5 cash dividend, and they put 1,000,000,002 of debt on the business. When the market crashed in 2008, they didn’t have the wherewithal to keep pace with growing subscriptions and growing the digital business. And that was really the undoing it wasn’t. So because we were really sort of neck and neck with Netflix until the market crashed. It’s something a lot of people don’t realize, but anyway.

And then I’ll just talk about a few other brands that are relevant here. American Apparel is also, you know, a great brand, known to hundreds of millions of people, the target customer, really hipsters, but they had what’s really interesting about that brand is it was the largest garment manufacturer in the US, 5000 workers in Los Angeles, they’re paid 18 bucks an hour, they had health care benefits. And so all that’s great, right? And that you can make the cool thing was you can make money doing that in the US, you could make a t shirt for three bucks and retail it for 25. Right.

So great profits, and that the tragedy was it’s a little bit of, I think of it as corporate cognitive dissonance, where you have this great brand that stands for something, and then you don’t run things the way you should internally. And much of that’s in the press, the founder had some issues. That was all very public. And that really was the company’s undoing. So anyway, yeah, that’s that.

And then Wild Oats, love Wild Oats, it’s a you know, it’s that’s a company where they totally got it right, great product. You know, organic offering that was genuine, that if you worked at Wild Oats, and then obviously within 2007, with Wild Oats and Whole Foods, and they were neck and neck and that business, I would say Wild Oats was a better brand at the time and had and that was communicated internally felt internally. And then Whole Foods bought Wild Oats. And then obviously Amazon bought Whole Foods. So all that’s changed. But that was a beautiful brand that we relaunched in 2013 to create scale to have an affordable organic brand. And it went went very well. We got 200 million sales in 18 months in partnership with Walmart, and then Walmart shifted gears a little bit, honestly, and such as life happens anyway.

So that was those and then just to complete. In the cold storage business, we’ve created a route, with the help of Ashton, that’s a really interesting brand that speaks to its acquisition platform. So it speaks to the the family companies that we’re acquiring, we’re fundamentally creating an alternative for family businesses who otherwise would sell to the to large consolidators, that have basically 60% of the market. And so what we did was create this company, to give them an alternative. And the alternative is for them to reinvest with us. We’re all investors together, and they reinvest in their own business. And we support them with Central Services and with capital. Because it’s an industry where it’s very expensive to add capacity, a new facility, more than $50 million. And these families don’t have that. And as time marches on family businesses, the retiring generation wants liquidity. But a lot of Father-Son teams are, you know, that you have the coming generation wants to continue to grow it, you know, they love their team, they’re problem-solving for the customers, they like their regional brand. So our whole platform for CORE X Partners is designed to solve their needs. So, you know, that’s thanks to Ashton and Ashley, sorry, Ashton. And Abby.

 

Ashton Belk  

There’s also an Ashley. So we’re all good.

 

Tom Casey

The A team is amazing. But anyway, they CORE X brand was created to message to our prospective partners and our internal team. And our customers, most importantly, you know, how we’re set up and how we’re different. And it’s been really a lot of fun. And I mean, the true test of what we do is whether we are making money or having fun with it. And that’s, to me, if we’re doing that, we’re in a good place.

 

Abby Fraser  

That’s great. So you feel like you’ve been building this brand with an intention that was informed by those past experiences?

 

Tom Casey  

Yeah, that’s exactly right, Abby, always keeping in mind those kind of three purposes of the brand and how it speaks to the constituents. Yeah, that’s great.

 

Abby Fraser 

Thank you. Ches will come to you next. So, you have a unique perspective on how brands have been positioned to go to the market for the last 20 years. How have you seen the value of branding and positioning evolve in that time?

 

Ches Riley

In my world, which is the middle market, sell-side M&A advisory, you know, I think the positioning of a brand or a business has always been the centerpiece of what a sell-side banker does. And so I think even in the late 90s, early 2000s, a big part of what we did was try to understand every nuance of a company and then figure out how to best position it in the market to drive optimal value, I think you will probably get that. If I think about what has evolved over the last 20 years, it’s I think the range of multiple that you sell your business for is much wider. We weren’t talking a lot about 1011 1213 times EBITDA in the late 90s and early 2000s. I think it was, for companies of scale of high quality, you know, maybe it was 5, 6, 7, maybe 8. I think over time, I think the range of multiple has increased significantly. And so I think, the importance around how your business is positioned like the stakes are as high as they’ve ever been, your position at one way, maybe that’s a six or seven times outcome, you pitch, position it another way that could drive a double-digit outcome. So, I think there is a tremendous amount of focus on positioning.

I think the other thing I have seen over time is the importance of data, having to be in sync with the story that you’re telling. I think if, as a banker, I’m telling this great qualitative story and using a lot of the typical banker buzzwords, everything’s mission-critical and robust. If the data doesn’t support that, if it’s not in sync, then things fall apart. Right. So I think maybe we’ll get to some of the innovations next. But as I think about how, you know, what has changed, there’s a heavy focus on on the data, and that the quantitative stories got to match up with the qualitative story

 

Abby Fraser  

Wow, that was my next question. In your work today, what innovations are you seeing? What trends and changes?

 

Ches Riley  

So I mean, for big framing here, my industry has been pretty slow to innovate right? Over a period of time, middle-market, sell-side M&A has not really been thought of as a cutting-edge innovation. Our clients are tremendous, fantastic innovators. But as bankers, we’re pretty slow to innovate, so, Abby, this is a business where going from Word to PowerPoint was a big deal. And I think we were the last ones to move to electronic, you know, marketing documents, right? It was always it was always hardcopy.

So I think innovation, I have seen more of it in the last five years, has tended to kind of center around the fact that people are busy. And there are a lot of a lot of things competing for everyone’s time. And so we have focused on getting to the message and getting to the point sooner. And so I think that has meant using very high impact marketing techniques, things like videos, incorporating video in our marketing materials, things that are very high impact, where you can tell a crisp, very efficient story quickly, and get to the point right out of the gates. And so I think if you look at the average length of our documents and marketing documents over the years, it used to be 70 ad pages, nobody wants to read a dense 70 page book. These days, it’s more like 40 to 50 pages. Maybe there’s a video at the outset; we’re starting to use that a lot more. Then, you quickly get into a data supplement. And I think that that seems to resonate with buyers more than dropping a 70-page book on there on their desk.

 

Abby Fraser  

Are there any specific ways BlackArch is implementing that mindset tactically?

 

Ches Riley  

So, we are incorporating videos in our teasers. And in our marketing documents, I think beyond that, we are trying to do what we refer to as the BlackArch Roadshow, which is when we’re bringing a new deal to market instead of the traditional way of sending out a teaser or leaving a voicemail and never really connecting with the buyer on the other end. We go to their office, sit down in a 45-minute type meeting, and walk them through a 15-slide deck to deliver a much higher impact message than the traditional. Here’s the teaser to be presented at your Monday morning meeting. We have found that and we’re not the only ones doing it just to be clear, but we do I do think we were an early adopter and we’ve continued to embrace that. You can get a usually a higher level decision maker, you can tell folks exactly what we think you should focus on, we can proactively position some of the soft spots, every business has their soft spots. And we have found that to be a much higher impact way to grab somebody by the lapels and tell them why they should focus on this on this opportunity versus it getting presented at a Monday morning meeting of all with six other deals.

 

Ashton Belk  

And just to Ches’s point, one of the things that we’ve found in a conversation that I was having recently, too, with one of our colleagues and private equity, was bringing this concept to the table. And all of a sudden, he’s like, Oh, well, that makes so much sense. Now, before I have to fly to the Midwest to validate whether or not this leadership team is a group that I can work with, I know that within five minutes, I’m going to get on that plane to the Midwest with more intention and understand who could potentially be a good fit for our portfolio.

 

Ches Riley 

Yeah, and I think you’re talking specifically about the use of video, which we because I think buyers in this market want access to management earlier. And so we’re seeing that, and if we can accomplish that through a three, four or five-minute video, and they can get it kind of get a feel for the management team kind of personality, how they kind of operate in hear the story directly from them and not, you know, from a slide deck from a banker, that that tends to be much more high impact.

 

Abby Fraser 

That’s great. Those things are all investments you’re making and telling the story. So you have to know the story first, right? So that’s the magic sauce there. But thank you.

So, shifting gears to Helen here, you’re representing a company very differently, representing a brand that you really are, like, literally built from the ground up from the soil. So, as you look back on your growth and the accolades you’re receiving now, can you identify some of those factors that really are your brand, like what differentiates you and what you discovered over time that really defines your brand?

 

Helen Keplinger  

I started my brand back in 2006. And it was after making wine in Spain for three years. And before that, I had done some apprenticeships in Napa and Santa Barbara. And early on, I realized I wanted to be in Napa. So, therefore, I wanted to leave to get training outside to just better inform all of my winemaking practices and work practices in Napa. So when I returned to Napa, I was making wine for one property. It’s called Kenzo Estate. And I was interested in starting my own label, but I had fallen in love with the Rhone varietals. And that’s what I had worked with in Spain. And Spain’s a really interesting region, it’s really just one soil type.

There’s a lot of variability in this very small region, and it really exemplified terroir and differences, small differences that can be humidity, temperature, gradients, and slopes aspects, and can make tremendous differences in the wine. And so that became the focus for me starting my own brand. And so doing that in Napa was basically differentiating my brand from the start with a different origin story because I was living in Napa, making Bordeaux-based wines, Bordeaux varietal wines, but I was purchasing fruit outside of Napa, both because there aren’t Rhone varietals really grown much in Napa. Also, because this was entirely self-funded, the fruit outside of Napa is a lot less expensive. So, it was a lower risk to start a business, and then it also optimized revenue to be able to grow that business. Early on, I realized that a story is so important in building a brand. And in order to really build a loyal following, you have to have a strong story that’s different and meaningful. And, so I started this business, and my husband joined me, and so that, you know, that right there brings a lot of soul to a brand, but then following that up with making a product that was exceptional, had a strong identity.

And then also what’s so special about wine is that no two wines are alike. Even different vintages from the same vineyard will showcase all of that vintage’s variables. And that’s part of what makes wine so compelling and so interesting and why people continue to buy wine. And it’s also what sets a small brand apart from a large brand. Because the the goal of a large brand is to give you a wine that tastes the same every year, which is I’m on the other end of the spectrum. It’s a much more artisanal product and has a higher level of production. But to me, that would be the death of my brand and also be incredibly boring and also just not reflect anything that’s that I feel is special about wine. So early on, I focused on really showcasing those wines, making wines of incredible integrity, and following that up every single year. So over the course of years, many years, we’ve had many times when we’ve had to make difficult decisions, if there were a weather event that caused a while, you know, that resulted in one lot that was picked that was not of our standard of quality that would not that would be sold, or, you know, just things that were difficult. A big example is in 2020, when we had wildfires, and there was some degree of smoke taint in all of the wines from Napa, for us. And we chose not to make anything from Napa, which we’re still recovering from that financially, but it’s the right decision.

And in an industry, the wine industry. And I think most industries are very enamored with things that are new and fresh. And we must all have a very short attention span. But if you think about wines, we only get one opportunity a year to make a wine, I don’t get to make wine every day, or 10 times a day or two times a week. And so all of the lessons that I learned in one vintage and making one wine, I get to apply that the next year. So there’s a big benefit: having a longer timeframe to learn all of those lessons and continually fine-tune the winemaking process to make better wine every year. So it’s interesting that we’re so fixated on things that are new in wine because, actually, wines that have a much longer track record are things you can depend on. So that’s what we’ve done over the time period is differentiating, I think I’ve differentiated myself as a winemaker, because inherently I have a very good work ethic. I love detail. And I’m not, I don’t like cutting corners, I really feel strongly about doing the right thing and making the best wines. And so, over the course of time, we’ve built our reputation. And I’ve built my reputation on that. And making wines that are really specific to a place because I would want everybody to feel they can identify and understand a place rather than just buy a wine.

 

Abby Fraser 

I’ve always liked how you talk about making wine and the intentionality because it’s parallel to how we build a brand. And you’re doing both at the same time. You also have built a brand as a consultant and helped bring that same mindset, intentionality, and understanding of the place to your clients. So I think that is another evidence of a strong brand that has legs like that. So thank you. And thank you for teaching me how to pronounce terroir.

All right, Ashton. So I mentioned that this conversation has been happening a lot around ACG as we think about the key audiences in the ECG community, such as corporate investment bankers and private equity. Can you talk a little bit about the pain points that they each experience that brand equity can help solve or this focus on brand equity? Sure,

 

Ashton Belk  

I think starting out with corporate some of the things and I think I’ll I mean, as far as like the trends that we’re really seeing is for corporate specifically, it’s really understanding and having a high intentionality, of getting ahead of the narrative.

So a lot of corporates that we work with, are really choosing to make strategic communication, a big piece of their work. So instead of letting the story come out or letting an acquisition happen, not getting in front of it and being able to tell their own story and choose the narrative. Instead, they’re being highly proactive and making sure that they’re going through and telling the answer, choosing the story, telling it internally first, getting internal buy-in, then being able to actually take that story externally to customers and stakeholders and making sure that that that is a chosen piece of their narrative rather than letting it happen to them. And we’ve seen a lot of benefits from that. But now it’s it’s an essential part of what they do, as opposed to an afterthought.

For investment banks. Well, I’ll give a nod to Ches. But I think some of the biggest things that we’ve seen, too, is really that depth of understanding, positioning, and prioritizing, positioning and making sure that in doing the study and the work behind what it takes to make sure that when you go to market, you’re highlighting the differentiators that are actually going to be the drivers for potential growth. So in doing so, whether it’s through something like video like we’ve talked about, but being able to highlight authenticity within that story and bring that to the forefront. So it really feels like a game changer from our perspective and the clients that we work with. Because then we hear the stories of what it was like when they actually presented the engagement that was felt, and then the aftermath of being able to have a more qualified buyer come to the table.

And then, for private equity, I think the biggest piece is really valuing positioning as a whole. So understanding of brand equity audit coming to the table sooner, and going through, okay, here’s this as a part of the due diligence process here is actually what this brand is worth, here’s what we’re gonna have to overcome if it’s a tarnished brand because that’s, that’s a big deal. You have to figure out whether or not it’s worth actually investing the time, energy, and effort it actually takes to overcome a tarnished brand and how to integrate that fully into a different company. Or if it’s a bolt-on, and you’re figuring out what it’s gonna take for that customer base to be able to understand what’s happening with their original company and company A and company B, how do they work together? How are they now married? And what’s the story you want to tell, making sure that it’s positioned appropriately to be as successful as possible and then set up well for exit?

 

Abby Fraser 

Can you think of a specific client or or story that speaks to the power of brand equity in a transition?

 

Ashton Belk  

Sure, I’m one of the companies we worked with was PE-backed and came to us with a problem of, or as they put it, a bag of parts. And so what we did from there really figured out a difference in brand architecture and how important brain architecture really is. So by that, I mean we have an umbrella company or a holding company. We developed a holding company in order to push brand equity up so that all of the other companies actually benefited from the Association. Before, they didn’t have that it was small companies, A, B, C, D, E, F, and they had no cross-pollination opportunities when they were able to actually come together under a holding company, then be separated out into different divisions, then private equity also had the ability to be able to take and sell off different divisions. So, depending on the buyer who will come to the table, they can stress test and move those companies around at will. But they all float together, then they were presented with cross pollination opportunities. Sales really benefitted because of the choice to make in brand architecture and leaning into that based on positioning in the market.

 

Ches Riley  

Maybe just to add on to that, because I think we were talking about this earlier, I think we have seen an increase in this in the holding company strategy over time, you know, led by private equity. And I think if you don’t do the legwork of showing proper integration or that this is the common thread of why these companies exist together, then you get penalized in the market. And so I think I’ve seen the good and the bad, I’ve seen the bag of parts, the companies that have been slapped together, they haven’t been integrated, you kind of scratch your head as to why they actually exist under this umbrella. And buyers, you know, you get hammered from a valuation standpoint. But if you can invest in the brand and show why they fit together, that there are synergies, cross-selling, and a real unifying theme, then it can work nicely.

 

Abby Fraser  

Yeah, that’s the ROI of actually investing in the brand equity up front. That was actually my next question about ROI. So, are there any other examples for anyone on the stage of where you feel like investing in the brand and really doing that with intention has ever returned, or maybe you’ve seen where it was a missed opportunity?

 

Tom Casey 

I would just say, in our platform, it’s critical because what we do is take what would otherwise be a bag of parks, family ABCDE, and basically put CORE X in front of it because the families do care about their brand. And so it’s almost family-run, powered by CORE X, And we integrate every company. So everybody’s on the same systems, we can see all of our 16 facilities side by side how they’re performing. So it’s critical to integrate, as Ches was saying, to get the value, but it’s also critical to preserve the brand in a creative way. So that obviously is how we deal with it in our why that’s great.

 

Abby Fraser  

What about a missed opportunity of not caring about the brand? Is there anything there?

 

Ashton Belk  

I think that there’s always the ROI piece of it, but there’s also the cost of delay. So, as we look at it, what has happened and what we’ve seen happen with various companies that we work with is if there is confusion about the messaging of a new brand that is coming in, and during an acquisition specifically. And if that is happening, and there’s confusion, then all of a sudden, internally, productivity can really drop. Because people are wondering what’s going to happen to their jobs? or is somebody else going to come in? I mean, that is the conversation that’s happening instead of great, I feel confident in the way we’re going, I have trust in leadership. And here’s how we will move forward or be able to look at whether or not there’s. Yeah, internal chatter, I think, is a big piece. And then for customers that there’s customer confusion along the way, as well, that’s a big piece, your sales team goes out to go sell, they now have something else they can sell, but they don’t have the language or the messaging around how to best present it. And then all of a sudden, your customer is wondering whether or not they still have the same value that they did in Company A, now that there’s Company B and C alongside it. So being able to actually control that message and being able to do that up front, then you would avoid that cost of delay piece.

 

Abby Fraser  

Yeah, I think that’s a great point. I’ll just ask one more question, and then I want to see if there are questions from the audience; I would love to hear those. But where would you recommend to someone here? And they they’re like, yes. Okay, Abby, I believe you I want to focus on brand equity, where would you recommend that they start or start thinking about this? What should trigger this activity in their process? Anybody?

 

Ches Riley

I mean, from my standpoint, I think if you wait until you have a process in your sights, that’s, that’s too long. In terms of investing in the brand, building equity, and other things that we’re talking about, I think that’s more of, you know, day one – 2, 3, 4 years in advance of a transaction. I think some of the more strategic marketing innovations and techniques like video and higher impact stuff, that’s more, you know when you’re starting to prep for a process, but I think in terms of brand investment.

 

Tom Casey  

I mean, to me, it’s what’s your purpose, right? And what are you all about? And how are you differentiated in the market? And that connects with the brand? It has to start there, regardless of any kind of transaction. It’s, that’s what it’s all about. Right?

 

Ashton Belk 

So yeah, and I would say, Bring the brand to the table before, bring them earlier frame earlier than you think that you need to, and really look at, do the work for positioning, I think that if you know where the brand is at, you understand what the sentiment is currently behind it, you understand where it’s positioned in the market if it’s the right one, is your messaging, not aligned, and going through that process, then allows you to choose all of those tactical approaches with intention, rather than throwing something at the wall and seeing if it sticks. You know what will work, why it will work, and you have set yourself up well for a good launch point.

 

Ches Riley  

We do a lot of debriefing with buyers right after a sell-side process. And I think a lot of that plays into private equity, beginning with the end in mind, right? They buy a company and they think about, hey, I bought it, it was positioned this way. But we think if we actually transitioned into this type of business or business model, we can get 2, 3, 4 times higher on the exit. And so I think part of that is understanding what were some of the soft spots and limitations on positioning, you know when we sell a business, and then they kind of have a bit of a roadmap for the next then the next exit?

 

Abby Fraser  

That’s smart. Looking way down, down the line. Yeah. Are there any questions? For our lovely panel? We have a few minutes.

 

Attendee 1  

Please. Great panel, I learned a lot. I’m on the corporate development side. And a lot of times, we will buy the number three number four player in the market, which certainly doesn’t have the same brand equity as a market leader. How would you recommend the sort of nonmarket leaders for any given market position themselves? Sort of authentically because I find a lot of the sell side engagement position the number three number four player A strongest number one when that’s probably not the case because they just aren’t as successful. So I’m curious about what you think about being a buyer. How do we look at the artist authenticity of the brand equity for the companies that are good assets yet? Maybe it’s kind of the number three or number four asset? Great question.

 

Ches Riley 

I think from my perspective as a sell-side banker, I think, understanding why that company really exists in the market and what it does to differentiate versus the number one or number two players, there’s got to be some reason that they are, you know having success would really be where I focused initially, whether it’s, you know, focusing on smaller customers, or, you know, a different niche that the larger player can’t serve us, because they’re too big. I think it’s really just understanding what the real differentiators of that number three or number four player, you know, are? And then how can you kind of amplify that, under your ownership, is what initially comes to mind?

 

Tom Casey  

Yeah, I would just add that, in my experience, it’s sometimes the number one and number two players, like in my industry, are not the innovators, the up-and-comers that whether it’s in the food industry, or logistics, you have a lot of people that are nimble, flexible, I always think a good regional family business can beat a national like supermarket chain or a retailer all day long in the way that Helen competes very successfully. That’s because they’re really connected to their purpose. And they’re really good at what they do. And sometimes scared. They’re diseconomies of scale, yet large, and sort of corporate bureaucracy and too corporate way of thinking takes over, and you’ll lose what you’re all about. So understand.

 

Helen Keplinger  

Yeah, we definitely see that in the wine industry, it is often the big profitable wineries that are not making the best products because they’re cutting a lot of corners to increase their margins. And obviously, when you’re when you’re if you’re buying number three, or number four, it might have a much stronger and higher quality product. And you can connect with people with that message. And the truth of that.

 

Ashton Belk  

The only thing I would add to that is just understanding, like doing the work to go behind the scenes to figure out what it is that makes it to everybody else’s point. What are the customers currently saying about it? Why are they currently buying that product in the first place? Figure out if there are common threads around that and figure out if there’s a way to be able to bring those pieces together to highlight that in order to not try to be number one necessarily, but try to create a consistent differentiator and highlight and amplify f&m.

 

Attendee 2  

Hello, I’m Paul. I do executive search work around the country for consumer products companies, and a lot of them are private-equity backed. And the PE firms are very conscious of the brands that they’re buying and investing in. And they come to me and say, find me the general manager, CEO, CEO, CFO, as you work, helping companies with brand or buying companies and focus on brand. How important is it to you that the company puts a lot of emphasis on helping employees understand the brands, recognize the brand, and recruit people that fit the brand? They tell me that people make or break companies, so they put a lot of pressure on me to get them the right people. I use their brand a lot in recruiting. So, how much emphasis do you guys put on building the brand for the employees? Thank you.

 

Tom Casey  

Yeah, 100%, and you’re you’re spot on. I mean, it has to be happy that people are the culture has to support the brand. And that people have to believe in the mission. And that’s it’s just it’s got to be fun. You know, you have to have people who like and respect each other. It’s not always fun. But most of the time, people got to like to show up and enjoy their surroundings. And it’s not about buying assets. It truly is about buying people.

 

Ches Riley  

Yeah, I mean, I think not just my clients but also BlackArch, where I work; we are a people business. And it’s critical, right? And we think we have our own ethos and that our brand stands for certain things in the market. And that works well with certain people, but it doesn’t work well with all people. So we’re laser-focused on that, particularly in our business. That’s all we have is our people. And so it’s, you know, the most important thing.

 

Ashton Belk  

And some things that we’ve found to be really interesting lately are that we find a lot of companies that really want to elevate their employees. They want the employees to be the story of their company. They’re who they are, and how they operate are based on the people. If you can highlight and elevate the people that are within all of us, then the brand equity rises. So, those two go hand in hand constantly.

 

Abby Fraser 

We always say people work with people. So it was interesting when CORE X was coming together. They spent a lot of intentional time on the values and the naming of that piece of the brand so that they could tell that story to a potential acquisition. Right, they have to buy into it, so that match was important.

 

Attendee 3  

My question is kind of follow-up. My question is for you, Tom; I’m just fascinated by this challenge of being a great alternative to Americold and Lineage; here are those giants. When you were thinking about naming and developing that brand, I’m wondering if you could just talk a bit about the process you went through to figure out how you could come up with something that would resonate with that entrepreneur, a local entrepreneur who’s built up a warehouse, cold storage, business?

 

Tom Casey  

And I love the question, we obviously credit to the team for helping us get there. But it was really, you know, cold storage, outstanding service, regional relationships, and entrepreneurship; that’s what CORE is, but we love the word. It’s a powerful word and X’s connection. So that’s really the essence of what core X is all about. And we put it in front of whatever the family business is. Its Merchants cold storage in Cincinnati, its CORE X MERCHANTS and so on. But that’s kind of the way we deal with it. And as Abby said, it really does start with what you are all about. How are you differentiated? How are you? How are you serving customers in a way that allows us to compete with with the two large players, right, because we have to the beauty of what we have is we have sufficient scale, but we’re not so big that we can’t get out of our own way. And we have family entrepreneurs that are very, very successful, at what they do.

 

Abby Fraser 

And the way we got to that solution was by talking to all of the partners that were there and finding out what was important to them, and maybe we brought like 10 or 12 ideas to the table and surveys and all these things, so at a time CORE X Partners came to be everyone was bought in, and it was an easy story to tell.

 

Ches Riley 

And it helps that you kind of live that movie right, not blockbuster.

 

Abby Fraser 

Well, wonderful. Thank you guys. You’ve been a wonderful audience, and thank you all for your thoughtful comments and thank you to JPMorgan Chase and ACG San Francisco for having us. Thank you. And we will be we will all be at the reception drinking Keplinger wine, s please join us!