- Business Strategy Development

# Reimagining Marketing During Recessionary Times

- The Story

The merger of two major grocery companies held the promise of significant scale advantages, but its success hinged on the meticulous execution of integration. By diligently guiding Company through this complex process, we facilitated a transformative shift in its operating model, organization design, and the effective utilization of synergies across its expanded footprint. As a result, Company and its customers now reap the benefits of a merger that has generated remarkable efficiencies throughout the combined entities.

#### Mapping out a highly complex integration

Company’s merger successfully brought together a vast network of stores spanning multiple countries, establishing a unified corporate entity. Following the completion of the deal, Company’s leadership made the strategic decision to reshape the company’s operating model by streamlining and consolidating certain functions. With a strong commitment to achieving synergies amounting to approximately 1% of sales within the third year post-merger, our team played a crucial role in providing a comprehensive road map for this endeavor. Leveraging the expertise of our seasoned retail professionals, we identified key areas where value could be unlocked, including:

Overhead

Reduction in duplicative roles, real estate savings, scaled support of business, and capability improvement

GNFR

Optimization of all goods not for resale, including demand reduction, consolidated spend, and capability improvement

GNFR

Supply chain network optimization, with synergies across transportation and logistics

In addition to the aforementioned sources of value, our comprehensive analysis revealed additional avenues for Company to capture savings and generate synergies. These included leveraging capability transfers to optimize operational efficiency, rationalizing IT infrastructure to eliminate redundancies, increasing market penetration of own-brand products, capitalizing on cash benefits from disposals, and improving working capital management.

Furthermore, the merger provided Company with enhanced buying power through the combined volume benefits from shared suppliers. This advantage led to a reduction in the cost of goods sold (COGS), further contributing to overall cost savings.

Through our diligent efforts, we identified hundreds of millions of dollars in cumulative synergies that Company could capitalize on following the merger. The company has successfully reinvested a significant portion of these savings into strengthening its brands and fostering continued growth and success.

#### A closer look at one critical consolidation

One significant aspect of the transformation involved the consolidation of the IT organizations of both companies. Prior to the merger, these IT departments had underperformed and lacked prior experience in managing such complex integration processes.

To effectively execute this change, our team assisted Company in establishing an Integration Management Office (IMO). The IMO played a crucial role in developing a series of deliverables, updates, and a roadmap for their implementation. Working collaboratively with our team, the IMO identified the key processes that required redesigning and formulated a plan for their sequential and cohesive implementation.

Over the course of several months, we guided Companyin defining a new global IT operating model. This involved merging the two IT organizations into a unified function, while also establishing clear roles for regional and global Chief Information Officers (CIOs). Remarkably, Company was able to launch these new processes and teams ahead of schedule, all the while ensuring uninterrupted business operations for its customers in its stores.

By successfully implementing these IT changes and streamlining the organization’s IT function, Company was able to enhance operational efficiency, improve system performance, and leverage technology to support its overall growth strategy.

#### The power of scale in M&A

Our involvement in supporting the Company merger extended over a comprehensive three-year period, encompassing activities ranging from pre-merger due diligence to post-closing strategy. However, it was during the crucial phase of merger integration that Company began to experience the tangible benefits that result from successfully executing a meticulously planned merger, particularly within the retail industry.

Through the implementation of a new operating model and the consolidation of its organizational structure, Company achieved significant cost savings, precisely as planned and within the designated timeframe. The company successfully attained its synergy savings target, equivalent to 1% of sales. Notably, 14% of these savings were derived solely from IT-related initiatives, underscoring the impact of the IT integration efforts.

Today, Company stands as a prime example of a retail company that has harnessed the operational efficiencies and bolstered competitive positioning promised by the initial merger thesis. The organization has realized the full potential of scale, ensuring a strong foundation for sustained growth and continued success in the dynamic retail market.

* We take our clients’ confidentiality seriously. While we’ve changed their names, the results are real.

14%
portion of total synergy savings derived from IT consolidation

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