OC&C gains foothold in Italy with Long Term Partners deal
OC&C Strategy Consultants has added 12 partners and roughly 70 consultants to its European footprint with the purchase of Long Term Partners. The Italian management consulting firm founded by a group of former Bain & Company partners will hope to extend its offering to new clients thanks to the deal.
The integration of OC&C and Long Term Partners (LTP) follows a two year working relationship, after the firm became an associate partner of the UK-headquartered strategy consultancy in 2017. The integration will now see Long Term Partners rebrand as OC&C Italy, with all Partners and consultants transitioning to the global strategy consulting boutique.
“We are thrilled to be taking this next step together,” said James George, International Managing Partner of OC&C Strategy Consultants. Both firms focus on the higher end of the strategy, management and organisational space. Long Term Partners specialises in helping its clients with growth strategies, designing and implementing change and mergers & acquisitions. OC&C's service portfolio is slightly broader.
Extended offerings
While the firms work across several industries, “we share a very strong overlap in the retail and consumer goods sectors,” said George. In other sectors, such as luxury, the two will be able to complement one another.
In today's market, luxury players need to navigate major trends such as competition from insurgent brands, changing consumer behaviour (e.g. post-ownership), e-commerce and digitisation of operations. For those that win the battle, the outlook is bright. According to data from Fondazione Altagamma, Italy’s industry association for luxury goods manufacturers, the global luxury market is set to boom from its current value of €276 billion to over €360 billion by 2025.
With the purchase, OC&C Strategy Consultants will be able to leverage LTP's luxury sector expertise across its global footprint, which now consists of integrated offices in eight markets across Europe, the US and Asia. At the same time, LTP will benefit from OC&C's portfolio of offerings and international network.
Marco Costaguta, a Partner at Long Term Partners, explained, “Driving this merger is a desire to better serve our clients. Integrating into OC&C will take our ambition to deliver world-class consulting to the next level.”
An integrated network
The move for LTP comes at a time when OC&C is growing across its global operations. According to George, the firm is enjoying some buoyant demand along with the rest of the strategy and management consulting sector.
In the UK, the firm has grown over the past twelve months, yet he explained it is “interesting to follow Brexit developments and what it does to demand for consulting services and dealmaking. This is where we are now bearing fruit from the integral model OC&C launched two years ago, which helps us to shift resources to markets where demand is highest.”
OC&C’s integrated model caused something of a stir within its own network when it initially launched, with two domestic locales opting to join a rival. Now however, the strategy is paying dividends across the British-origin consultancy’s global wings.
“We are now bearing fruit from the integral model OC&C launched two years ago, which helps us to shift resources to markets where demand is highest.”
– James George, OC&C, International Managing Partner
In Germany, where the firm had to start from scratch less than two years ago, the Munich branch is “growing flat out.” Having started in consumer goods and private equity, George reported that the “relationships in the private equity community helped us to rapidly build business back up,” but that the firm is now much broader, and can work across multiple areas, with its four Partners and 30 consultants.
In France, which was similarly stricken by a deal with EY-Parthenon, OC&C initially begun with two local Partners relocated to build a French wing. Now the firm has four Partners there, and more than 25 consultants. The two offices are OC&C’s fastest growing hubs in Europe as a result, and expect to continue their growth this year.
OC&C is however enjoying its best growth performance in the world’s largest consulting market, the US. The firm currently has 9 Partners in the US, with a team of about 40 consultants. “We’re continuing to scale our ambition there,” concluded George.
