THE BRIEF
Zip Water is the leading Australian designer and manufacturer of instant boiling water dispensers and other water solutions with over 60% market share in the commercial markets in Australia and NZ and 30% in the UK.
OUR APPROACH
Quadrant was attracted to Zip due to its strong brand and history, leading market position and product range, defensive industry qualities and significant scope to build the residential and offshore business
In this transaction we partnered with the founder Michael Crouch (who started the business 50 years ago) and helped him managed his succession planning – Michael still retains a 30% interest in Zip Water and the business continues to leverage off his experience and guidance
Our investment thesis focused on driving ongoing like for like sales growth, increasing the store footprint, implementing supply chain efficiencies and improved purchasing disciplines and building out the base of management expertise as well as accelerate growth in key product categories and markets
So far under Quadrant’s ownership EBITDA increased by 33%. Quadrant has also achieved a number of operational and structural improvements including:
- Materially growing the residential proportion of the business
- Re-focussing on sales initiatives including the rollout of systems to “own the customer relationship” and add ‘sophistication’ to the sales force
- Emphasising the need to build and grow the “servicing” segment – recurring revenue opportunity to service our water solutions
- Continue to expand operations in the UK including the implementation of a new management team
- Undertook a full review of supply terms and introduced new disciplines to deliver significant margin improvements;
- Broadened the product range to accommodate new demands for design / functionality and quality
- Invested significantly in the calibre of the senior management team introducing a new CEO and other SLT members