BearingPoint buys UK-based supply chain consultancy LCP Consulting
Berkhamsted based LCP Consulting has been acquired by international consultancy BearingPoint. Around 30 management consultants will transfer to BearingPoint, taking the firm’s UK footprint to 300+ consultants, and significantly strengthening its supply chain and retail capabilities.
LCP Consulting is a supply chain and business operations consultancy founded in 1985. The firm provides a range of consultancy services in the field, including supply chain strategy, inventory management, procurement, sourcing and network & infrastructure design, and possess a suite of proprietary solutions, methodologies and tools that support insight, design and execution.
After more than three decades of operating independently, LCP Consulting has decided to join BearingPoint, with over 3,700 employees one of the largest management and technology consultancies in Europe. The move will, according to John Lockton, Managing Director of LCP Consulting, allow the firm to expand its reach and enhance its service portfolio, notably in the field of digital consulting. “Joining BearingPoint will enable LCP to accelerate our growth plans within a range of industry sectors both in the UK and internationally. We are keen to leverage BearingPoint’s wider capabilities for the benefit of our existing client base”, he remarks.
For BearingPoint, the move marks a significant expansion in the UK & Ireland, where the consultancy now has a team of more than 300 consultants based in London and Dublin. James Rodger, BearingPoint’s Regional Leader for UK and Ireland, highlights that joining forces with LCP deepens the firm’s operations service line – one of BearingPoint’s larger arms globally.
Supply chain and retail capabilities
LCP is specialised in customer-driven supply chain management, and the firm has since its establishment built a strong track record in the field. Last year LCP won the ‘Project of the Year’ award from the Management Consultancies Association (MCA; the UK’s representative body for the consulting industry) for a supply chain transformation it delivered at Argos, while two years ago the consulting firm won two major awards at the Retail Week Supply Chain Awards.
“LCP is a recognised leader in their field and the acquisition of such a high calibre consultancy fully supports our growth strategy in both the UK and internationally”, comments Peter Mockler, who heads the firm since its management buyout in 2009.
The acquisition further adds industry expertise across a range of sectors to BearingPoint – LCP’s clients include manufacturers, public sector and academic institutions, and companies involved in logistics and distribution, chemicals, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and the automotive industry. Retail is however the firm’s sweet spot, with the deal adding six of the top ten UK retailers and a substantial number of top 50 European retailers to BearingPoint’s client list. “It allows us to accelerate our growth plans in retail within the UK consulting market”, explains Rogers.
LCP Consulting will in the coming year continue to operate independently and under its existing label, yet, following completion of the integration roadmap, the partners envisage moving the firm’s operations under the BearingPoint brand. “Becoming part of a leading international consulting organisation will open up new personal development and career opportunities for our people”, adds Lockton.
Mergers & Acquisitions
The move by LCP follows two other consultancy firms with a strong footprint in the UK retail sector that in recent years have joined larger counterparts. Both were picked up by Accenture: in 2015, Javelin Group was purchased (~160 employees), and last year, Kurt Salmon’s retail arm (160 staff) was acquired. The acquisition of Germany’s Inverto by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) marks one of the larger recent deals in the supply chain consulting space.
The deal is BearingPoint’s second major acquisition in the space of a few weeks – last month the consultancy integrated a manufacturing and operations consulting unit in Italy comprising more than 30 industry experts. Previous transactions include Magenta Advisory in 2016 (a Helsinki based management consultancy specialised in digital business development), UK based Trinity Horne (an advisory firm focused on operational performance improvement) and RiValue (a German reporting specialist), both picked up in 2014.
Globally, BearingPoint has set the ambitious goal of growing its revenues from €622 million today to around €1 billion by 2020. The Amsterdam headquartered partnership is led by two Germans, CEO Peter Mockler and CFO Andreas Flach, and several regional and industry leaders.
