Maximise The Value of Your Growing Media Business

Maximise The Value of Your Growing Media Business
You’ve created great information, media or events products. You’ve built a loyal team, and your customers love to work with them. Revenues are growing.

Now it’s about creating value: quality of earnings, maximising core market share, raising barriers to entry, having a focused plan for growth. That means making better strategic plans and decisions. It means taking your products to the next level, optimising your sales structure and strategy, building a robust finance function and creating the governance structures that support it all.

And if you’re thinking about exit, have you made the investments, resourcing decisions and strategic plans that will maximise the value of your business?
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Dedicated to entrepreneurs. Centuries of experience.
Since 2006, Collingwood Advisory has been working with media, events, information and membership entrepreneurs on strategy, scaleup, value creation, exit planning and M&A.

Our team has centuries of experience across the sector. We’ve built and sold our own companies, we’ve worked on dozens of M&A deals both as buyers and sellers, and we’ve run big businesses for major corporates. We have specialist expertise in leadership, product development, marketing, sales and finance.

Collingwood Advisory works exclusively for entrepreneurs. We translate best practice from corporates into tools that work for independent owners. We’re trusted by the major buyers, but we are never conflicted.

And we’re here for the journey: advising you as Founders and CEOs, supporting your senior teams. We don’t write elegant reports and then leave you to implement. We stay the course. We work with you to create value.

“You ensured we got the best possible deal from the best possible buyer... My only regret is not asking you to help us 12-18 months before our target sale date, when we would have had more time to implement your value adding ideas”
Kieron Osmotherly, CEO, TowerXchange (sold to Euromoney)

Growing Value Together

We know that you aren’t just doing this for the money: you want to build a great company, create value and legacy, and achieve your life goals.

We break down the value creation process into programmes to develop your core products, optimise your sales structure, build strategic plans and ultimately prepare for sale. Our highly experienced CFOs can restructure and professionalise your finance function. And we’re unafraid of rapid change: our Digital Pivot programme supported many media and events businesses through the impact of the Covid crisis.

Understanding the DNA of your business

Our directors are entrepreneurs like you. We know that every company is different, and that your customers will have specific needs. We’ll work closely with you to understand how your business ticks, and make sure you have a strategic plan and structure that makes the most of your company's unique character.

Sharing best practice from corporates

As you scale up, you can find yourself reinventing the wheel. Our advisory team has a wealth of experience, templates and techniques honed from centuries of experience. It’ll all help you to scale more quickly and with less risk.

We’re changing the way entrepreneurs grow and sell their businesses.

"Collingwood have worked with us on governance, decision-making and value propositions, which has helped us to increase our revenues and retention rates. Collingwood understand the DNA of our business. They provide very human, practical support, and they challenge us. It’s changing our business for the better.”
Ruth Yarnit, CEO, White October Events

“Collingwood's vast advisory and M&A experience give them an excellent eye for maximising value. Within two years of the launch of one of our businesses, they secured us a 7-figure exit.”
Alex Williamson, Founder & CEO, Bio-Based World Founder & CEO, SmartRail World (sold to DVV Media) and Managing Director, Tank World Expo (sold to Easyfairs)

"We asked Collingwood to help us to streamline the business and build a new plan. Working with them helped us to quickly adapt our product set and reshape our teams. They see every challenge as an opportunity and have got a deep understanding of where we've been, where we're at and where we need to get to. They're part of my business."
George Rockett, CEO, DataCentre Dynamics

Growing Your Business

The Three Year Value Leap

Many entrepreneurs scale up their businesses in an intuitive fashion, adding resources and products in response to market feedback.
Being customer-driven is fundamental to value creation, but it isn’t enough. The investment and structuring decisions you take today will affect the profitability, resilience and value of your business in 18 months’ time and in 36 months’ time, whether or not you sell your business then.

Find out More

The Scaleup Toolkit

Freeing Yourself to Build a Valuable Company

It’s hard to make long-term strategic decisions when your focus is on the day-to-day challenges of sales and client delivery. What you do as CEO today will change the future profitability, resilience and value of your company. Download The Scaleup Toolkit now for advice on how to avoid running up against your own limitations, break free of the day-to-day and build value in your company.

Request a copy - The Scaleup Toolkit

“We’ve been working with Collingwood Advisory for the past year, which has had an immediate and significant impact on our business. Through regular and structured board meetings, and ad-hoc support, they have helped us rethink how we grow our business, retain more clients and increase our operating margins. We view them as an integral part of our Board.”
Toby Daniels, Founder & CEO, crowdcentric - owner and operator of Social Media Week

"Collingwood Advisory has been extremely beneficial to us as we chart our direction of travel. The business has changed significantly thanks to the advice of Julian, Fergus and the wider management at Collingwood – it’s always useful to have an impartial, and often non-emotional, view of the business decisions we are making."
Eoin McManus, CEO, Lyrical Communications

Selling your business

“Collingwood's approach is deep and detailed. It's refreshingly honest and candid, but they hit the right note between support and challenge. Working with them has been fast-paced, results-driven and even pretty enjoyable. We've learned a lot - they are real experts, with drive and enthusiasm.”
Tom Dunkerley, CEO, Sift

“You really want to know what ‘good’ looks like. That’s where Piers is an invaluable adviser and partner. He has great experience in all stages of development, mapping out growth to create a sustainable, valuable company.”
Alex Johnson, CEO, GFC Media Group

About us

Decades of experience launching, growing and selling media businesses

Piers Bearne

Piers is an entrepreneur and investor who has built and sold his own media businesses, and who has worked on M&A for major buyers, both as CEO and consultant.

Rewa Bouji

Rewa has 15 years of experience advising on and delivering large-scale, complex, IT-enabled change and business transformation in blue-chip organisations, through new and innovative approaches to collaborative delivery and commercial models.

Julian Graves

Julian has worked across a wide variety of industry sectors and in a number of capacities, from content to marketing and business leadership.

Daniel Pitchford

Daniel is an entrepreneur and tech VC whose first business was acquired by Informa within 18 months of launch.

Fergus Gregory

Fergus is an experienced B2B media business leader who has spent over 15 years in the world of media, subscriptions, and events.

Daniel Schwarz

After completing his MBA (INSEAD), Dan worked on a range of projects whilst at Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Rebecca King

Rebecca has over 17 years' experience in global B2B media as a marketing and project management leader.

Jenefer Thoroughgood

Jenefer is an expert in engaging customers to develop great products. She has over 20 years' experience in digital media and SaaS.

Andy Baker

Andy has over twenty years’ experience of building digital media businesses, including start-ups, turnarounds and acquisitions.

Steve Smith

Steve has 20 years of experience spanning the main sectors of the events industry.

Andrea Davies

Andrea is an experienced business leader and strategic advisor and has spent over 20 years driving transformation at the forefront of B2C media.

Debra Chipman

Debra is an entrepreneur and C-suite executive with deep expertise blending strategy, digital transformation, M&A, and operational skill sets in private and public B2B events businesses. She has been a founder, a buyer and a seller of event companies.

Lauren Pulling

Lauren is an expert in digital product development, content and community engagement, with significant experience across scientific and technical markets.

Dominic Bolton

Dominic is a corporate finance adviser to SME’s, the mid-market and entrepreneur owned businesses with 25 years’ experience in all forms of Mergers and Acquisitions (“M&A”) and Private Equity including disposals, fundraisings and management buy outs/ins with a particular focus on the Media Sector.

Carolyn Morgan

Carolyn has over 25 years' experience as a media and events executive and adviser. She has successfully led media businesses to profitability and taken brands onto new media platforms including print, TV, digital and events.

Vasu Majumdar

Vasu has over 15 years of corporate finance experience having worked previously at NM Rothschild & Sons Limited and Grant Thornton UK LLP. He has completed 35 M&A deals with a combined deal value of over £5bn.

Karen Forster

Karen has worked in B2B media marketing since 2001 and has vast experience across multiple business sectors globally.

Allen Gibbons

Allen is an experienced senior executive and board director, and an expert in business transformation. His experience covers strategy formulation, new product development and M&A.

Chris Kilbee

Chris is an internationally experienced business leader with an extensive background in large-scale, global exhibitions and B2B media across multiple sectors and regions.

Corinne Cunningham

Corinne has over 25 years experience in Finance and Commercial roles in the international sport, media and events industry.

Anthony Belloir

Anthony is an experienced leader in specialty information products and services. He was previously Managing Director of CEB’s (now Gartner) Marketing and Communications practice and has led teams in North America, Europe and India.

Julian Rose

Julian is a B2B information entrepreneur who has focused on high value subscriptions and enterprise memberships offering regulatory and market intelligence.

Vicky Macey

Vicky has twenty years’ experience spanning B2B, consumer and specialist media.

Brian Sherwood

Brian has established himself as a global thought leader in the marketing science of quantitative and qualitative research that leads to actionable insights used to drive business growth.

Julia Borispolets

Julia is a strategy and M&A director with 15 years’ experience in the business information, events and media sectors.

Pauline Coulter

Pauline has held senior roles within B2B events companies in a career spanning 25 years

Karin Hausmann

Karin is a strategic marketing leader with over 15 years’ experience across the subscriptions, media and events industries.

Tim Porter

Tim Porter is an experienced exhibition industry professional with over 30 years' experience.

Amanda Wigginton

Amanda is a customer strategy, data and insight specialist and has 25 years experience of using customer knowledge and understanding to drive business growth.

Linda Blackerby

Linda has over 20 years of global operating C-suite experience, including growing start-ups, commercializing data & analytics subscription businesses in a large publicly traded company, and serving on advisory boards.

Rosalyn Cropper

Rosalyn is a highly experienced B2B market research, competitor intelligence and new product development specialist.

Phil Garner

Phil has over 22 years of STM publishing experience, working in leadership roles and across many functions.

Paul Franklin

Paul has a 22 year history in the media industry, having worked for Auto Trader, Future, and also for 15 years at Dennis Publishing, latterly as Group Publisher across both B2B and B2C titles.

Jonathan Goor

Jonathan has 24 years experience building subscription businesses in the news, data analytics and event space.

Josephine Andrews

Josephine is a growth marketing specialist with a specialism in aligning sales goals with performance marketing campaigns, technology and culture.

Julian Lloyd Evans

Julian has spent the last 28 years developing market-leading media client solutions across a number of international markets as one of media’s most successful CROs.

Katie Murphy

Katie has 20 years’ experience in international B2B events.

Rosalind Hill

Rosalind has over 15 years of experience working in B2B media and STEM publishing as a content and community leader.

Sarah Walkley

Sarah is a strategy and product development specialist with a strong track record of using research to provides individuals at all levels of the organisation with the knowledge they need to act. She has over 25 years’ experience in business information.

Simon Anam

Simon joined Acuris as a start-up, developing through a series of subscription and event management roles.

Ade Allenby

Ade works with clients to assess, deploy and maximise the benefits of Digital Engagement and Event Technology to increase Revenue and NPS.

Simon Middelboe

Simon has more than more than 30 years’ senior management experience at Emap, Informa, Centaur.

Michelle Graves

Michelle has over 20 years experience in B2B media working across a broad range of products and services covering events, subscription BI tools, publishing and digital.

Alison Finnegan

With over 25 years’ insight experience, Alison expertise is using customer understanding and data to build actionable insight which delivers revenue and sustainable growth.

Greg Hughes

Greg has enjoyed a career in media and publishing across the globe spanning nearly three decades.

Jocelyn Cripps

Jocelyn has held senior roles at Amazon and The Financial Times and successfully led and developed marketing programmes and teams in the media, not for profit, and e-commerce sectors.

Martin Roy

Martin has over 20 years of experience leading, growing and transforming international events and service businesses.

Vanessa Lovatt

Vanessa is currently completing a CPD accredited Board Advisory course to refine her advisory skills and is particularly focused on strong results in go-to-market, positioning and customer retention initiatives.

Ann Jacoby

Ann is an internationally experienced business leader with a background directing and overseeing research and data analysis firms from scale-up to exit.

Ian Saville

Ian has joined the Collingwood team as a Senior Adviser to support the growth of the CFO service to Collingwood clients.

Jim Conybeare

Jim is a commercial Chartered Accountant with over 25 years experience as a senior finance leader in large media companies.

John Stuttard

John is a B2B media events and publishing specialist of 26 years experience.

Contact us

Drop us a line at info@collingwood-advisory.com or complete the form below

Maximise The Value of Your Growing Media Business

Dedicated to entrepreneurs. Centuries of experience.

Growing Value Together

Understanding the DNA of your business

Sharing best practice from corporates

Growing Your Business

The Three Year Value Leap

The Scaleup Toolkit

Freeing Yourself to Build a Valuable Company

Selling your business

Putting you, the entrepreneur, first

Matching your company’s brand and values to the buyer

Advising on profit growth and creation, not just brokering the deal

Getting inside the mind of the buyer