The Business
CeDo is one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of household disposables such as refuse sacks, bin liners and other speciality kitchen and household disposable products. It supplies the majority of Europe’s largest supermarkets and discounters with own-label products as well as some branded sales elsewhere. The business had a strong focus on the UK, German and French markets whilst sales in Eastern Europe had also grown rapidly. CeDo had four manufacturing plants located in the UK, Poland, China and Vietnam plus a recycling facility in Holland producing post-consumer recycled (“PCR”) polyethylene granules for feedstock.
Investment thesis
Rutland’s strategy was simple: to be the lowest cost scale producer in the market. It involved integrating the European and UK operations, relocating the head office to the UK and completely overhauling the senior management team. The three key strands underpinning this were improved manufacturing efficiency, reduction in cost of sales by substitution of polymers for cheaper materials and elimination of excess overhead costs.
Exit
The result of Rutland’s five-year tenure was a professionalisation of the business and step change in the profitability which, ultimately, led to a successful exit. Rutland sold CeDo to Straco, a private Belgian family investment company, delivering a 2.8x money multiple for investors.
