In 2020, Charles Cattoir took over Primalof, a young, dynamic and expanding business with four generations of experience in growing chicory.
The Buyout Academy teaches you the ins and outs of the world of SME takeovers. It's an ideal programme for those who want to take the plunge into entrepreneurship through a business acquisition.
M&A has many characteristics, which are highly sector-specific. This programme gave me the guidelines I needed to transform my idea into a real plan. Moreover, there was always someone with broad knowledge from the field present, meaning that alongside the academic theory we learned about the experience in practice.
Every takeover is different, and that was also the common theme in this programme. Personally, I was looking for a food or production company – a type of business that has different characteristics compared to an IT company or marketing agency. Many people are searching for a new challenge, but it's important to find a framework in which you can look specifically for a business. By determining what you don't want to do, as well as how big your budget is and how much you're prepared to invest yourself, you can narrow down your search field. This means that people from the sector can also help search in a more targeted way.
I completed the programme in 2019, just after I started searching for a business. The programme gave my search a much more concrete form. Being able to discuss things with like-minded people on a regular basis delivered real added value for me. I bought Primalof in May 2020, and in September 2022 I took over a second business to further expand our vertical strategy.