Warehousing specialist due diligence

Challenge

A potential investor faced the challenge of thoroughly understanding the market outlook and customer satisfaction for a family-owned warehousing and logistics operator with a specialized industry niche. The business had been quite successful, but there were potential threats of backward integration by big-box retailers or forward integration into the space by Asian outsourced manufacturers. We were asked to conduct objective market, competitor and customer research.

Approach

• Assessed trends for imports of products in the target company’s major verticals.
• Interviewed 30 customers re business outlook, logistics provider selection, key competitors, and opportunities to provide additional logistics services.
• Projected market outlook and customer demand.

Results

• Delivered objective research results on target company positioning and customer challenges.
• Provided investors with key insights to discuss with company owners.