Shaw & Co, the specialist corporate finance advisory firm, has launched the first in a series of 12 in-depth market sector reports that offer the industry’s SME business leaders a powerful benchmarking tool to aid their decision making.

This first report covers the UK Food and Drink (F&D) marketplace and segments over 2,100 F&D businesses with earnings in excess of £1m by size and subsector to track their performance, profitability, debt levels and M&A activity.

The report’s key findings include:

• Covid-19: Within the F&D sector, the Bars & Restaurant (B&R) segment has undoubtedly been hardest hit by the pandemic, reporting a drop in turnover of 35% and earnings of almost 60%. This is understandably creating a knock-on effect with brewers and the wider sector as a whole.

• Borrowing: There is now a significant opportunity for alternative lenders to bridge the gap left by the traditional lenders for longer term loans for SMEs.

• Funding Capacity: Outside of B&R, a good business with solid growth plans could be borrowing up to four times its earnings (Ebitda) for growth projects and acquisitions.

• Mergers & Acquisitions: The M&A market is highly buoyant with double the volume of transactions compared to the prior year. There is also strong international buyer demand for quality UK businesses regardless of size or location.

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"It is our mission to provide SME business leaders with free access to the same market intelligence that blue-chips have regular access to."

Jim Shaw
Founder & CEO of Shaw & Co

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Commenting on the rationale behind the new series of reports, Jim Shaw, Founder and CEO of Shaw & Co, said: “Larger blue-chip corporates have regular access to this type of analysis from investment banking advisers. However, it is our mission at Shaw & Co to provide SME business leaders with free access to the same market intelligence in a clear, concise and easy-to-use way. We hope these reports will serve as a valuable resource in their future planning arsenal.”

Alexei Garan, Director – Debt Advisory, at Shaw & Co and editor of the report said: “This report, and those that follow, will help SME business owners to benchmark their own and their peers’ performance relative to their sector. It will also provide them with valuable market insight that will enable them to evaluate their relative creditworthiness and attractiveness from a M&A or growth funding perspective, allowing them to make the best decisions for their business and its future.”  

A full copy of the report is available for free download here.

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