UBICO
Commercial Advice
Ubico is an environmental services company that is jointly owned by eight local authorities in the Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire area and set up as a Teckal. We have been working with them and their partner shareholders for a number of years providing commercial advice around structure, governance and growth.
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Our work with Ubico began by undertaking a review into the business development options available to the company in order to: make recommendations about a future growth strategy, specific business development opportunities and actions needed to realise the potential.
The specific objectives of the review were to:
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Analyse and compare the main commercial opportunities identified by Ubico in order to make recommendations about which ones to pursue, the level of investment needed, the likely level of return and how to best move into the identified markets.
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Review the governance of Ubico to make recommendations about the best commercial vehicle to make the most of the commercial opportunities
The opportunities identified fell into four main categories:
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Doing more with existing shareholders
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Adding shareholders
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More commercial work
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Cross boundary working
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This led to a long term growth strategy for Ubico that we have subsequently helped them to deliver on through additional as follows:
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Structures and governance for growth – in partnership with Sharpe Pritchard Law we analysed the different structural opportunities for growth including: subsidiaries, joint ventures, joint venture teckals and other options looking at the best structure to ensure efficient and effective management of Ubico, delivering a return of shareholders and creating an attractive proposition for future customers and partners
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Business case and mechanism for a new partner joining – we developed a business case for a new partner that is looking to join Ubico making recommendation on the best structure and process for that to happen by
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Centralising fleet management and maintenance – we developed a business case for Ubico to take back to partners to demonstrate the benefits of centralising the fleet under Ubico ownership rather than running it as a ring-fenced fleet for each partner
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Contract renewal for existing partners – we analysed and made recommendations for future contracts with partners to ensure the long term resilience of the company
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WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT US
I’VE VALUED CONSULTANCY FROM COMMERCIAL GOV IN RECENT YEARS, AS WE HAVE BEEN DEVELOPING COMMERCIAL STRATEGY AND CONSIDERING VALUE CREATION OPTIONS. THE TEAM AT COMMERCIAL GOV HAVE TAKEN THE TIME TO UNDERSTAND OUR BUSINESS. THE GUIDANCE RECEIVED HAS BEEN INVALUABLE AS A SOUNDING BOARD FOR STRATEGY, AS CORROBORATIVE THINKING FOR EXPLICIT INITIATIVES AND TECHNICAL ADVISOR FOR NAVIGATING COMPLEX LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMERCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. WE SEE COMMERCIAL GOV AS A VALUED SERVICE PARTNER.
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Chris Urwin,
Finance Director,
UBICO
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