Technical Due Diligence for a Speciality Food Ingredients Company

Project Overview:

Project: Technical Due Diligence for 2 production plants in the UK
Where: North East England, United Kingdom
IntES Services: Technical Due Diligence

About the Project:

Our client approached us as they had an interest in the potential acquisition of two existing production plants in the UK. Before being able to make a decision on whether or not to progress in the tendering process, our client required an expert overview of the condition of the factories. As such our client engaged our specialist services to provide an in-depth technical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the factories on site and highlight opportunities. Thereby providing them with the vital information necessary to make an informed business decision regarding the acquisition.

The Brief:

The client asked for the following deliverables from the Technical Due Diligence:

• Overview of the current status of the factories​
• Deep dive on capacity analysis and identify investments necessary to meet the growth plan.​
• Detailed information and estimates on the immediate investment required to secure business continuity and address any immediate compliance issues and any safety, health, environment and quality risks.
• Future investment scope and estimate for bringing both sites up to modern manufacturing excellence standards.
• Scope and estimate of decommissioning and demolition of both sites and the design and construction of a new combined site.

The Challenges:

This project came with some significant challenges. Firstly, there was an incredibly tight timeline of just 4 weeks, over the busy Christmas and New Year period, to complete all assessments and generate the estimates and summarise in the final report. Furthermore, there was minimal information in the data room relating to the technical assets of the production sites. Also, the production plants would only allow a visit of 1 and a half days of the DD team in which to visit both sites and interview key personnel, with no photographs allowed to be taken and much documentation restricted due to intellectual property concerns.

Our Approach & Results:

IntES appreciated the huge challenges involved and knew that this would require the attention of only highly experienced engineering consultants. As such, we put together a specialist team of Senior IntES engineering consultants and specialists together with a partner firm based in the UK, headed-up by IntES’ lead Fine Chemicals Consultant.

With the use of established cost estimating databases of similar assets and factored estimating techniques, we were able to scope out and provide estimates for the required deliverables.

Our client was very pleased with the outcome, especially in such a short space of time and considering the challenges faced. They were delighted with the level of detail in the report and invited IntES to present the results to their board of directors, as a step in their overall due diligence process.

Want to find out more about how we approached this project? Or discuss your own technical due diligence requirements? Get in touch with us and speak to one of our experts.