For business owners
You've built something valuable. Let's talk about what comes next.
Most owners we speak to are not on the market. They are working out who should have the company after them, and whether now is the moment to start that conversation.
What matters to us
Seven things we hold to, because they are what owners tell us went wrong elsewhere.
Confidentiality
Your enquiry is read by the people who would own the business, and by no one else. Nothing is said to your staff, customers or suppliers by us at any point — you decide who is told and when.
Straightforward communication
You will get plain answers, including when the answer is no. We tell you what we think of the business early rather than keeping you in a process to preserve optionality.
Respect for what you built
Thirty years of work is not a set of assets to be rearranged. The name stays, the history stays, and we expect to explain to customers that continuity is the point.
Respect for your employees
The people who do the work are a large part of why the business is worth buying. Continuity of employment is the plan, and investment after completion usually goes into training, equipment and capacity.
Long-term thinking
We are not buying in order to sell. Decisions after completion are made on a ten-year view, which is a different set of decisions from the ones a five-year owner makes.
Flexible transition arrangements
Some owners hand over in a month; others stay two or three years, often part-time, doing the parts they still enjoy. We build the handover around what you actually want.
Professional execution
Proper advisers, a realistic timetable, and a price on the first page that we intend to pay. We do not re-trade late in the process because a modest issue appeared in diligence.
How it works
Six steps, and you can stop after any of them.
01
Conversation
An initial confidential discussion about the business and what you want to happen next. It usually takes under an hour, by phone or in person.
No documents, no financials and no advisers are needed for this. Nothing is committed by talking to us.
02
Understanding
We learn about the company: its financial performance, its customers, how the operation actually runs and where the opportunity sits.
This is a small number of quiet meetings and some straightforward information. Your team need not know it is happening.
03
Proposal
Where there is mutual alignment, Crathwick provides a clear acquisition proposal: price, structure, timetable and what happens after completion.
We show the arithmetic behind the number so you can follow it without an adviser translating it.
04
Due diligence
Both parties work through financial, commercial, operational and legal diligence, with your solicitor alongside ours.
It is a confidential review rather than an audit, and it is designed to confirm what we have already been told.
05
Completion
The transaction completes and ownership transitions. Funds are paid, documents are signed and the announcement is made in the way you want it made.
You decide who is told, in what order, and what is said.
06
Next chapter
We work with management and employees to support the company's continued development: reporting, systems, investment and recruitment where it is needed.
You can stay involved for a while, or hand over and step away. Both are normal.
You only sell a business once. It is reasonable to take your time.
Questions owners ask