Lord’s Dental: Timing the Marketplace for a Successful Sell
Taking full advantage of the window of opportunity made all the difference.
Founded in 1966, Lord’s Dental is a premier laboratory offering a complete line of dental restoration products including implants, crowns, bridges, and full and partial dentures. The company has a long history of bringing new materials and techniques to the dental-profession marketplace, as well as a strong reputation for understanding the needs of dental practices.
Situation
Throughout its life cycle and at various milestones, Lord’s Dental has relied on Wipfli for a wide variety of services, including quality business valuations and merger-and- acquisition consulting. In a 2000 management buyout, Wipfli provided accounting, valuation, and tax transition assistance to Lord’s Dental. During its long-term planning process in 2006 and 2007, Lord’s Dental identified several trends that could impact its future growth, including technological advancements, global market pressures, and consolidation across the industry.
Strategy
Just as Wipfli had played a key part in the 2000 buyer team, it now became a key part of the selling team. Wipfli brought deep industry knowledge, an intense understanding of the Lord’s Dental business, and a broader market perspective to the strategy table. Regular and consistent communication on the current market climate and timing was provided to the management team throughout the process. As a result, Wipfli gave Lord’s Dental a better understanding of what its business was worth and we helped the company recognize what a potential deal structure would need to look like.
As M&A activity in the industry began to increase, Wipfli helped filter out numerous willing suitors and identified those credible buyers that could align with the post-transaction growth and prosperity goals of Lord’s Dental. With the right buyer and the right timing identified, Wipfli then helped to structure the deal so as to maximize the benefits to shareholders and protect them from potential pitfalls. After the transaction, Wipfli assisted the buyer in valuing Lord’s specific assets for financial reporting and with additional tax analysis post-closing.
Benefits
The management team of Lord’s Dental gained a solid understanding of the marketplace and the factors that made its company valuable. Wipfli’s analysis helped manage their expectations and gave them important insights for selecting the right buyer and seizing the right timing. Wipfli’s valuation expertise and business knowledge further created a very efficient process, giving Lord’s Dental high-quality services at a reasonable cost.
Additionally, Wipfli was instrumental in helping the company’s shareholders understand their new roles as they transitioned from owners to employees.
Relationship Executive
Karen Monfre, CPA/ABV, ASA, CFF, Partner |
Full Profile