LPR

Driving operational change

During our ownership, LPR was the second largest provider of pallet rental services in Western Europe with an established presence in five core European markets: France, Spain, Portugal, Benelux and the UK.

Its customers operated exclusively in the FMCG sector, predominantly in the food, beverage and hygiene industries that use pallets for the transport and storage of goods.

  • At a glance
  • Status: Realised
  • Exit Type: Financial Buyer
  • Deal Type: Public to Private / Private sale
  • Sector: Business Services
  • Exit Date: July 2006
  • Initial Investment Date: September 2004
  • Website: www.lpr.eu

Transaction

LPR was a non-core subsidiary of Algeco, a publicly-listed company in France which we took private in 2004. It was considered to carry little or no value by the markets because of its very poor financial performance.

Despite its poor performance, we believed LPR presented several attractive characteristics, including its leading market positions across several European geographies and an impressive list of blue-chip customers.

During TDR’s investment

Turned LPR from an under-performing non-core asset into a highly profitable and cash-generative business.

Throughout our ownership, our operating team was deeply imbedded within LPR in order to drive operational improvements via a three-point value creation plan:

  • Improving the business’ cash generation and underlying return on capital through implementing strict pallet control
  • Introducing a more modular pricing model, reducing complexity in the sales process and increasing profitability
  • Increasing the quality of LPR’s customer base by exiting unprofitable customers and supporting the CEO to develop a key account management structure
  • LPR’s profitability and cash flow generation improved significantly during our ownership
  • In 2006 following a competitive sale process, we sold LPR to AtriA Capital
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