We built this firm because we kept seeing the same problem from the other side of the table.
We spent years acquiring founder-led Food and Beverage businesses. What we saw consistently - on the buy side - is what led us to build KLGP on the sell side.
Building a food business takes everything. Getting the right outcome from it should not be left to chance.
You have spent years - possibly decades - building something real. You have made payroll through difficult winters. You have invested in equipment when the cash was tight. You have navigated retail buyers, ingredient price spikes, and a market that does not always reward hard work with fair returns.
And somewhere in the background, there is a question you have not fully answered yet. What is it all worth? Not the rough number in your head. Not what your accountant said three years ago. The real number - in deal terms, in today's market, for a business with your specific profile.
Most founders we speak to have been carrying that question for longer than they want to admit. They are not sure who to ask. They are not sure the answer will be what they hope. And they are not sure what to do with it when they get it.
We have been in those conversations hundreds of times. We understand exactly where that uncertainty comes from - because we have sat on the other side of it.
You do not know your real number
Your accountant's figure and a deal-terms valuation are not the same calculation. The gap between them is routinely six figures. Most founders discover this for the first time when a buyer's adviser starts adjusting the EBITDA in due diligence - at which point it is too late to do anything about it.
You are not sure the timing is right
The window for the best exit outcome is not permanent. But nor is it as narrow as many founders fear. Understanding whether the market, the business, and your own timeline are aligned is exactly the kind of question that deserves a specific answer - not a vague "it depends."
You are not sure what is holding the number back
Most founders sense that something is suppressing their valuation. Customer concentration, founder dependency, financial presentation, management depth - these are the things buyers use to justify a lower price or a more onerous deal structure. They are almost all addressable with the right lead time.
You are not sure who is on your side
Your accountant has their practice to protect. Your broker has a fee to earn. Your bank has a relationship to maintain. None of them are structurally incentivised to tell you an uncomfortable truth about your business early enough to do something about it. That is the gap KLGP was built to fill.
We saw the problem from the inside - as the buyer.
For several years, a significant part of our work was buy-side M&A in the Food and Beverage sector. We were the people approaching founder-led businesses on behalf of acquirers looking to build platforms, consolidate categories, and deploy capital into quality F&B assets.
It was valuable work. And it was an education in something that nobody talks about enough.
Time and again, we would approach a business that looked compelling from the outside - good revenue, a recognisable product, a loyal customer base, a founder who had clearly built something from nothing. We would begin the process of understanding what we were looking at. And time and again, we would find the same things.
"The business was usually better than the founder thought. But the paperwork, the structure, and the preparation were almost always worse. And by the time we were sitting across the table, it was too late for the founder to do anything about either."
The management accounts did not reconcile to the statutory accounts. The top customer accounted for 45% of revenue with no written contract. The EBITDA in the accounts included the founder's personal car, school fees, and a salary that bore no relation to what a replacement director would cost. The key supplier relationship existed entirely in the founder's head and phone contacts.
None of these things were dishonest. They were the natural consequences of a founder running a business rather than preparing it for sale. But they had a direct and quantifiable effect on what we were able to pay, how we structured the deal, and how long we required the founder to stay.
The founder invariably felt that the offer was below what the business was worth. In most cases, they were right. But the gap between what the business was worth and what it presented as to a buyer was not something we as the acquirer were going to close for them. That was not our job. It was theirs. And nobody had told them it needed doing.
That is the observation that led to Kelvin Lane Growth Partners. Not a theory about what founders need. A direct, repeated, first-hand experience of what happens when they do not get it.
The same avoidable problems. In business after business.
These are not edge cases. They are the standard experience of a buy-side adviser approaching founder-led F&B businesses in the UK lower mid-market. Every one of them is addressable. None of them should be discovered for the first time in a due diligence process.
Messy or unreconcilable financial information
Management accounts that did not tie to the year-end. EBITDA figures that included personal expenses, family salaries, and non-recurring costs without adjustment. Revenue recognised inconsistently across periods. The consequence was not that we walked away - it was that we discounted the price to account for the uncertainty, and insisted on extended warranties and indemnities.
Impact: Lower headline price. Higher escrow. More onerous completion terms.Customer concentration that nobody had addressed
A single retailer, food service account, or CPG customer accounting for 30%, 40%, sometimes more than half of total revenue. No written contract. The relationship held personally by the founder. Every acquirer in the room was asking the same question: what happens to this revenue when the founder leaves? The answer was usually uncomfortable.
Impact: Multiple discount of 1.5x to 3x. Earn-out requirement. Extended transition period.Founder dependency running deeper than anyone admitted
The founder was the main salesperson, the head of product development, the primary contact for every supplier, and the person whose name was on the bank mandate. Buying the business meant buying the founder for two or three more years - at a cost that came directly out of the headline price in the form of a structured earn-out.
Impact: Earn-out of 30-50% of total consideration. Restricted post-completion freedom.A valuation expectation built on the wrong number
The founder had a number in their head. It came from their accountant, a conversation with their bank manager, or a multiple they had read about in a trade publication. It bore no relationship to the normalised EBITDA, the specific characteristics of the business, or the current market. The gap between expectation and offer was the most consistent source of failed processes we encountered.
Impact: Failed processes. Damaged relationships. Missed windows in the market.IP and contracts that existed only in handshakes
Recipes and formulations that were not documented, trademarked, or legally owned by the business entity. Customer agreements that existed as email chains rather than signed contracts. Supplier arrangements that would not survive a change of ownership. Each of these became a legal issue, a price chip, or a deal-breaker in the completion process.
Impact: Legal cost. Price adjustment. In some cases, transaction failure.No plan for what came next
The founder had thought about the exit in financial terms but had not thought about the transition. No second-in-command. No documented processes. No customer relationships that existed independently of the founder. The business could not survive the founder's departure - which meant the buyer was paying for something that would partly disappear the moment completion occurred.
Impact: Longer lock-in periods. Lower upfront consideration. Constrained personal freedom.Every problem we saw as a buyer is solvable. None of them needed to exist.
That is what made the pattern so frustrating to watch. These were not failed businesses. They were good businesses, often great ones, built by founders who had worked exceptionally hard for a long time. The problems were not fundamental. They were structural. And they were almost entirely addressable - given time.
Time is the critical word. The suppressors that reduce a multiple by two or three turns cannot be fixed in a six-month sale process. Customer concentration built over ten years does not disappear in a quarter. A management team that has never run the business without the founder cannot be credible to a buyer in a few months.
But addressed over two or three years - with the right framework, the right priorities, and someone who understands what a buyer actually looks for - every one of these problems responds. And the difference between a business that has addressed them and one that has not is, consistently, millions of pounds of enterprise value.
The founders who got the best outcomes were not always the ones with the best businesses. They were the ones who started the right preparation early enough to matter - with someone in their corner who knew what "right preparation" actually meant in deal terms.
That is what Kelvin Lane Growth Partners exists to provide.
We bring buyer-level knowledge to the seller's side of the table.
We know what acquirers look for because we have been the acquirer. We know what suppresses a multiple because we have applied those suppressors ourselves. We know what due diligence surfaces because we have run those processes.
That knowledge - applied early, on behalf of the founder rather than the buyer - is the structural advantage that Kelvin Lane Growth Partners provides.
Every engagement starts with The Picture: a complete, written exit roadmap that tells the founder what the business is worth in deal terms, what is suppressing the number, and the sequenced plan to close the gap.
"The best time to start preparing for an exit is three years before you need to. The second best time is today."
The experience that makes the advice different.
KLGP's advice is grounded in direct transaction experience across M&A advisory, investment banking, turnaround, and strategic finance - in the Food and Beverage sector and beyond. These are not credentials acquired in a classroom. They are the product of being in the room for difficult decisions across multiple sectors and market cycles.
F&B M&A Lead
Five years leading Food and Beverage M&A transactions at CDI Global - one of the world's leading mid-market advisory firms. Buy-side and sell-side mandates across food manufacturing, drinks, ingredients, food service, and distribution throughout the UK and Europe. The direct source of the pattern that led to KLGP.
Investment Banking
Investment banking experience at one of the world's preeminent financial institutions. The analytical rigour, valuation methodology, and transaction discipline that Morgan Stanley demands forms the foundation of how we approach every engagement - regardless of the size of the business.
Strategic Finance
Strategic finance experience at the world's largest asset manager. Understanding how institutional capital thinks about businesses, value, and risk - and applying that understanding on behalf of founder-CEOs who rarely have access to this level of financial analysis.
F&B Industry - Operational
Strategic finance from inside one of the UK's most iconic family-owned Food and Beverage businesses. Understanding the sector from the operational side as well as the transaction side - what it actually takes to run a food business, not just to advise on one.
Turnaround and Restructuring
Senior finance roles across two major turnaround situations. The ability to look at a business under pressure, identify the real drivers of performance, and build a credible plan to improve them - which is precisely what The Picture requires for businesses with significant suppressors.
The Complete Picture
17 years across M&A advisory, investment banking, turnaround, and strategic finance. ACCA qualified. Across sectors including Food and Beverage, technology, infrastructure, aerospace, and professional services. The breadth of experience that allows us to see what others miss.
This is what we are here to do.
We are not here to tell you what you want to hear. We are here to tell you what you need to know - early enough to do something about it. That is a different job from what most advisers do. And it requires a different kind of relationship.
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Honesty before comfort If your business has suppressors that will cost you at exit, we will tell you - clearly, specifically, and with a plan to address them. Not in a way designed to manage your feelings, but in a way designed to protect your outcome.
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Buyer-level knowledge on your side We have been the buyer. We know what acquirers look for, what they use to justify a discount, and what they genuinely value. That knowledge belongs on your side of the table.
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A plan, not just a number Knowing what the business is worth is only useful if you know what to do about it. Every Picture engagement produces a sequenced plan - not a report that sits in a drawer.
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Selective and serious We work with a small number of clients at any one time. If the fit is not right, we will say so. We do not take on engagements where we cannot add clear, quantifiable value.
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The right starting point Every engagement starts with The Picture. Because no decision about capital, timing, or process can be made well without first knowing the real number and understanding what is driving it.
The guide who has walked the path.
The most useful thing about having been on the buy side for years is not the technical knowledge - though that matters. It is the empathy. We know what it is like to sit across from a founder who has spent 20 years building something and is trying to understand why the number is not what they expected.
We were the reason the number was lower. Not out of malice - out of the logic of how acquisitions work. And we watched, repeatedly, as founders absorbed that gap without ever having been warned it was coming.
KLGP exists so that the next generation of F&B founders does not have that experience. So that when they reach the table, they have already done the work. They know their number. They know their suppressors. They have addressed the ones that respond to preparation. And they have someone who has been on the other side sitting with them when it matters most.
The conversation starts with your number.
The free F&B Business Valuation Calculator takes four minutes. It is built on the same methodology we apply in a full engagement. It tells you what the business is worth in indicative deal terms, how ready it is, and what is suppressing the number. It is the most useful four minutes a founder can spend before any other conversation.
Confidential · No obligation · Takes 4 minutes · Built for UK F&B founders