Always Be Exiting: How Manufacturers Build Value Years Before a Sale w/ Eric Wiklendt

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When a private equity firm buys a manufacturing business, closing the deal isn’t completion. It’s commencement, the start of five to seven years of work to make the company worth more than it was. Eric Wiklendt, Managing Director at Speyside Equity, has done that work from both sides, first as a plant manager and CEO inside manufacturers, now as the buyer.

In this episode, he lays out the two-phase system Speyside runs on every company it owns: Fix the margins first, then Build the top line. He walks through what a buyer is really evaluating when they ask whether a business is scalable, why a company where every decision runs through the owner is hard to sell, how customer concentration gets priced, and the difference between creating value on paper and getting cash into your bank account.

You’ll also hear why Speyside starts planning an exit a full two years before it goes to market, his test for a sellable business, whether it’s the kind of company Warren Buffett would want to buy from you, and why owners who may never sell should still operate by his rule: always be exiting.

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All expressions of opinion provided in this podcast are subject to change without notice and are not intended to be a forecast of future events or results. There is no assurance that the trends highlighted in this podcast will occur in the future or that the projections, if any, will be met.