We support growing companies which recognise that “what got them here, won’t always get them there”.
We observe that founder-led and family-owned businesses, however successful, often hit a ceiling at some point in their development.
At this stage, the incumbent strategy, organisation, processes and often also culture simply don’t enable the next chapter anymore.
We have encountered these situations numerous times and understand what it takes to break through.
The value levers vary case by case, but we generally drive initiatives in the following areas:
Growth
strategy
Could you address other customer segments? Introduce new products? Shift along the value chain? Enter new geographies?
Pricing &
marketing
Are you charging the right price for your products? How do you think about discounts? Is your marketing giving you bang for your buck?
Processes
& systems
Are your processes truly scalable or effectively in the heads of a few people? Are your IT systems just “good enough” or actually creating competitive advantage?
Organisation
& culture
Are roles and responsibilities clearly defined? Do you have the right people in the right jobs? Would you say there’s a high-performance culture in the company?
Buy &
build
Are there opportunities to grow through acquisition? How many potential targets are out there? How do you choose which one to pursue? At what price?
We recognise that success rarely comes in the form of a silver bullet in just one of these areas. It is often a matter of hard yards and patience in most or all of them.
Successful partnerships are key to what we do. We aim to be a valued partner to the management teams we work with, allowing them to realise the full potential of the businesses they are running. Our commitment in this respect is as follows:
ESG
Our business is to invest in successful companies and partner with strong management teams to make them even better.
ESG plays a pivotal role in our investment process. We believe that ESG is an essential element of our portfolio companies’ strategy and managing it properly will enhance our return on risk. All our portfolio companies have a defined set of ESG targets, consisting of a number of portfolio-wide KPI’s (carbon emissions, safety, employee engagement and diversity) as well as their own company-specific initiatives. Initiatives to achieve these targets are embedded in the broader value creation plans. We report on this progress publicly on an annual basis in our Freshstream ESG Report.
We are particularly pro-active in terms of mitigating our carbon footprint in line with our carbon neutrality policy. Freshstream as an organisation has been carbon neutral since 2018 and since 2021 we have achieved this for all of our portfolio companies as well. We monitor the footprints of all of our companies annually, set long-term science-based reduction targets in line with the Paris agreement and consistently encourage and support initiatives to reduce emissions at the source. Any residual footprint is neutralised through a multi-year carbon offset program with the Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve (https://rimba-raya.com/). Notably, this is the first project to be validated to contributing to all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Looking ahead, we continue to focus on carbon reduction at the source and less reliance on external offsets.
We are also working together with our industry peers and are a signatory of PRI – Principles for Responsible Investment, the ILPA ESG Data Convergence Project and iCi.
Charitable giving
We believe that we should contribute to the communities in which we live and work. To this end, we look to support charities in and around the areas where we are active, both with our time and with our capital. Our hope is that our efforts can help create a meaningful and enduring legacy for targeted causes.
We are currently actively supporting the following charities:
Horizon Foundation
East Side Young Leaders Academy
Maxem Trust