Business Finance: EDUCATIONAL MARKETING AND PUBLISHING

BUSINESS TYPE:	EDUCATIONAL MARKETING AND PUBLISHING
LOCATION:	LONDON
TOTAL NEW INVESTMENT:	£150,000

As a result of an introduction through a financial consultancy known to us, we met with the MD of this company at the beginning of 2007. Beer & Young Ltd were engaged by them to seek urgent investment in order to provide working capital for the company, which is in the educational marketing and publishing business, it having been starved of resources for 3 years due to changes in the market.

We fairly quickly were able to produce an investor from a similar field who offered to merge the marketing side of our client with theirs, but were not interested in the publishing business, which led to us being engaged to dispose of this side of the business to facilitate the marketing merger and provide much needed funds. The publishing side of the business has now being taken over and is being developed by two experienced players who have recently disposed of a medical publishing business and who see great potential in using ‘the schools channel’ to reach both adults and children with positive brand messages.

Happily during this process we have witnessed a significant up-turn in the levels of marketing business that our client is winning and the owner / MD has therefore decided to retain the marketing side of her business and develop it further for two or three years before seeking a more profitable exit closer to her retirement.

I was recommended to engage Beer & Young Ltd, by my financial advisers, after the struggle to keep my business together, following a severe drop in turnover over a three year period, was proving ineffective. Beer & Young came through quickly with an opportunity to merge the marketing side of the business with another similar operation, but the publishing business was not wanted. So I asked Beer & Young to find a purchaser for the publishing arm of my business and was soon having meetings with potential buyers. This led to a satisfactory deal being done which, due to a concurrent upturn in the marketing business, has enabled me to turn down the merger offer and continue to run and develop my own marketing business, which was always my ideal solution.

Beer & Young Ltd has been highly professional in all dealings, showing an astute knowledge of business strategy options and opportunities. Beer & Young consultants have shown great tenacity in finding the right solutions for my business problems and have supported me throughout. Without doubt, Beer & Young has been instrumental in saving my business from collapse.'

JB, Managing Director