Brand Growth Heroes

If you're the founder of a scaling brand, you've likely thought about selling your business. But when should you start preparing, and how do you find the right buyer?

In this episode, we discuss mergers and acquisitions with Charles Lanceley, Managing Director of Alantra's consumer team. Alantra is a leading investment bank specialising in consumer brands.

Charles has worked on major deals, including Fuel 10K, Strong Roots, and Grenade, and shares what makes a brand valuable—from strong financials to a compelling investment story.

He explains why building a business solely to sell is a mistake and how focusing too much on an exit can hurt your chances of achieving a great one. You’ll learn why being ‘for sale’ is never ideal, how the best deals happen behind the scenes, and why top M&A advisors don’t just find buyers—they already know who’s in the market.

We also cover common founder mistakes, like underestimating due diligence and not preparing for the workload of an exit. Charles highlights how an advisor can ease this process, letting founders stay focused on running their business—because if performance dips, so does the deal’s value.

Finally, we discuss how private equity and trade buyers view businesses differently, the impact of market cycles, and why the best way to maximise your exit is to build a brand buyers can’t ignore.

Whether you're considering selling soon or just want to create a lasting brand, this episode is packed with essential insights. Enjoy!

Useful links:

Connect with Charles on LinkedIn

Learn more about Alantra

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Thanks to Brand Growth Heroes’ podcast sponsor - Joelson, the commercial law firm

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If you're a founder, you already know how much of your energy goes into building the perfect product, creating standout branding and connecting with your consumers.

But don’t forget that scaling a CPG business also comes with a maze of legal complexities that can make or break your business journey. From contracts, term sheets and regulatory compliance to protecting your brand's intellectual property as you expand, it's essential to get it right.

And that starts with the right legal partner.

So we're thrilled to introduce Joelson, a leading commercial law firm that specialises in guiding the founders of scaling CPG brands, as Brand Growth Heroes' sponsor.

With long-term relationships with clients like Little Moons, Trip, Eat Natural, Bear Graze, and Pulsin, Joelson is also famous for advising the innocent founders in their landmark sale to Coca-Cola! As a female team, we are especially impressed by Joelson's commitment to championing female founders in CPG.

Not many law firms are also BCorps, nor do they specialise in helping founders navigate the legal challenges of scaling without stifling the creativity and momentum that got you here in the first place. So thanks, Joelson—we’re delighted to have you on board.

If you'd like to get in touch to find out more, why don't you drop them a line at [email protected]!

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A tiny favour: If this episode inspires you to think about new ways to drive business growth, please could you click FOLLOW or SUBSCRIBE on your favourite podcast app and leave a review?

This small gesture from you means the world to us, and allows us to share these nuggets of insight and value with you more often.

You won’t want to miss the next episode, in which Fiona Fitz talks with another successful founder of a challenger brand who shares more valuable insights into driving growth.

Please don't hesitate to join our Brand Growth Heroes community to stay updated with captivating stories and learnings from your beloved brands on their path to success!

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Thanks to our Sound Engineer, Gyp Buggane, Ballagroove.com and podcast producer/content creator, Kathryn Watts, Social KEWS.

In this episode, we're talking to Tom Szaky, the 38 year old founder of Terra Cycle, the world’s leading company in the collection and reuse of the non-recyclable stuff we all throw away every day. Think turning Colgate toothpaste tubes into school playgrounds, or enabling P&G to offer money off coupons to consumers in return for their dirty pampers, which are then recycled into new materials.

You may have read that Terra Cycle has just launched a new company called LOOP, which aims to tackle packaging waste at its root cause and could potentially see us buying all of our favourite consumer packaged goods in branded durable and reusable containers, rather than the staple single-use packaging they are mostly in now.  

For those of us who work with Consumer Packaged Goods,  Loop is so far reaching that if it works, it will change everything from how you design, package and sell your products, all the way through to what your Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Operations and P&L will look like.

In this episode of Brand Growth Heroes, Tom goes into depth on how Loop offers CPG brands the opportunity to shift from single use disposable packaging forms to durable reusable forms, and what the benefits are for you as a brand, over and above the obvious and most important benefit of the reduction of your brand’s impact on the environment.

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Giles Brook, renowned CEO, Entrepreneur and Investor has built up probably the most superb CV in the food and beverage industry, not to mention a supurbe portfolio of investments.
 Giles has been behind the growth of numerous insurgent brands – Innocent, Bear, Vita Coco, Pip and nut to name but a few. He is currently CEO of Vita Coco (for Europe Middle East and Africa) - which he launched over 10 years ago - and which is now turning over £40m in sales.
 Although he is the highest-ranked individual in The Grocer’s ‘Food & Drink Power List outside of global and multi-national CEOs, he is also nice, as he takes time out of the office to mentor and guide entrepreneurs. Here’s our interview earlier this month where we talk about what Giles looks for when investing in a company, whether looking for investment upfront or driving organic growth should be the thing, and how it can be really hard for founders working in the food industry
 

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★