Background

Launched in 2014, Trail is the market-leading work management app for the hospitality sector. It is used by thousands of high street chains including Costa, Wagamama and Bill’s, as well as independent businesses, replacing paper with digital technology to streamline operations, boost productivity and uncover efficiencies across a wide range of workstreams. The company had received an unsolicited approach from a potential buyer, and appointed FRP to complete a full sales process, including marketing the business to both trade acquirers and potential private equity investors.

Action

Our Corporate Finance team explored the offer for the business, and negotiated with the bidder to increase the offer. The team initially advised Trail to delay negotiations for several months, by which time the COVID-19 lockdown would be lifted, any uncertainty removed, and the business would have grown. During that period we continued to communicate with the original bidder, and by the time negotiations were re-launched a further potential buyer was involved, resulting in two parties competing for the business. The team negotiated a strong offer for the shareholders, agreed heads of terms, and managed all aspects of the deal including due diligence and legal issues through to completion.

Outcome

FRP’s Corporate Finance team secured a strong valuation for the business and efficiently managed the sale of Trail to the Access Group, a leading provider of business management software and solutions with a strong presence in the hospitality sector. When integrated with existing Access Group solutions, including training, HR and scheduling, EPoS, CRM, reservations, property maintenance and purchasing, Trail becomes a complete operational hub. The two co-founders of Trail joined Access Hospitality to help integration with existing software products and steer further product development.