The further development of one’s own company is a life’s work for every medium-sized company. When it comes to sustainable growth or succession planning, the term “platform strategy” (buy & build) quickly comes up in private equity. For us at AUCTUS, this means one thing above all: partnership at eye level. A platform company is a strong foundation: an established regional champion that serves as a basis for joint growth through targeted partnerships.

From an investor’s perspective, entrepreneurial substance and market-specific framework conditions must be a perfect match for this strategy to develop its full potential. So what characterizes a first-class platform?

• Critical mass: The company has a significant market position in its region or niche and generates reliable, stable earnings to cushion growth.
• Proven organization: The operational processes are already running excellently on a day-to-day basis, so that the core business remains stable while the Group expands.

• Many smaller market players: The target market is highly fragmented and characterized by many owner-managed businesses. These often face challenges such as unresolved succession issues, high bureaucratic pressure and digitalization.
• Win-win situations through acquisitions: Smaller regional businesses are not swallowed up. They often actively seek refuge under a strong umbrella in order to benefit from the professional backbone of the platform and become future-proof.

• Centralized shared services: Administrative areas such as finance, IT infrastructure, purchasing and HR recruiting are set up in such a way that they can be gradually shared with other locations.
• Transparent key figures: The introduction of modern, data-driven management tools helps to make the future Group’s performance transparent, comparable and controllable.

• Focus on core competencies: The partnership frees management from administrative burdens so that they can concentrate fully on the essentials: the market, product quality and strategic expansion.
• Common mindset: The management level sees the capital and M&A expertise of a partner like AUCTUS as a tool for realizing its own strategic ideas faster and more securely.