
Looxent has been engaged in a comprehensive Value-Up project for South Korea’s largest corrugated paperboard manufacturer, acquired by a prominent private equity firm. Spanning over two years, this project has driven significant operational and cultural transformation, establishing a transparent decision-making process, profit-focused operational structures, and healthy competition among factories. Employee satisfaction regarding management policies and procedures has also markedly improved since the acquisition.
The Value-Up project, initiated during the acquisition phase, has fostered a positive organizational environment and contributed to a remarkable improvement in financial performance within just 18 months. Compared to 2015, the company’s EBITDA increased by over 80% in 2016. While short-term performance gains typically stem from cost efficiencies, this case also demonstrated growth in top-line revenues, laying the foundation for sustainable value creation. Notably, the company achieved the most significant performance improvement among its competitors, solidifying its market leadership.
This dual-focus project encompassed numerous initiatives to enhance both top-line and bottom-line performance. Key top-line initiatives included increasing sales volume, implementing pricing strategies, expanding the share of high-value products, diversifying sales channels, and refining the customer portfolio. A major success was enabling the sales team to adopt profitability-based differentiated sales activities, underpinned by a new management framework.
On the bottom-line side, initiatives focused on productivity improvement, cost reduction in procurement, material usage optimization, logistics efficiencies, product portfolio rationalization, and fostering inter-factory competition through KPI management. Looxent also prioritized delivering practical solutions, ensuring tangible benefits for the client throughout the process.
Enhancing Execution of Core Strategies
Effective execution of core strategies is critical for survival in a highly competitive industry. For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), particularly those without dedicated execution teams, ensuring consistent implementation can be challenging. This was especially relevant for the client, which operates 12 factories nationwide, necessitating widespread alignment across its facilities.
Looxent gained management’s support to oversee the execution of core strategies directly. Beyond managing implementation, Looxent proactively addressed challenges during execution to ensure sustainability. For instance, a key operational strategy involved optimizing factory production allocation based on demand. Previously, these decisions were made intuitively by executives or sales teams. To improve this process, a simulation tool was developed to evaluate the optimal production allocation, considering factors such as manufacturing costs, logistics expenses, and productivity.
Initially, both the sales and production teams were skeptical of the tool and only partially utilized its outputs. Over the course of a year, Looxent demonstrated the tool’s effectiveness through consistent validation of its results, ultimately earning the teams’ full trust. Today, the tool is fully integrated into the business unit’s decision-making process, serving as a cornerstone of monthly production-sales alignment meetings. Looxent’s involvement in presenting analysis results during key meetings further enhanced strategy execution and alignment across teams.
Adapting Project Scope to Evolving Business Needs
Given the client’s diverse business units and factory network, the project required continuous reassessment of priorities and scope to address an ever-changing competitive landscape. The industry was experiencing overcapacity as players pursued aggressive expansion strategies, alongside significant structural shifts in the market.
As part of its growth strategy, the client identified horizontal M&A opportunities as a key pathway to cement its market leadership. Looxent expanded its role to include M&A feasibility assessments, valuation analysis, and integration planning. One acquisition has since been completed, with Looxent actively supporting post-merger integration (PMI). While adhering to the initial blueprint of the Value-Up project, Looxent dynamically adjusted its scope and priorities to align with the client’s strategic needs.
Next Steps and Sustainability
Both the client’s management and its private equity owner have acknowledged Looxent’s pivotal role in driving performance improvements. As a result, the client plans to embark on a third phase of the Value-Up project. This phase will focus on two primary objectives:
- Digitalizing Key Insights and Metrics: Automating the management of analytical tools and KPIs developed over the past two years to ensure long-term usability and scalability.
- Enhancing Cost Competitiveness: Strengthening cost structures to maintain an edge in an intensely competitive market.
This project underscores Looxent’s commitment to delivering sustainable value creation through strategic alignment, execution excellence, and adaptive problem-solving tailored to client needs.
Looxent has been engaged in a comprehensive Value-Up project for South Korea’s largest corrugated paperboard manufacturer, acquired by a prominent private equity firm. Spanning over two years, this project has driven significant operational and cultural transformation, establishing a transparent decision-making process, profit-focused operational structures, and healthy competition among factories. Employee satisfaction regarding management policies and procedures has also markedly improved since the acquisition.
The Value-Up project, initiated during the acquisition phase, has fostered a positive organizational environment and contributed to a remarkable improvement in financial performance within just 18 months. Compared to 2015, the company’s EBITDA increased by over 80% in 2016. While short-term performance gains typically stem from cost efficiencies, this case also demonstrated growth in top-line revenues, laying the foundation for sustainable value creation. Notably, the company achieved the most significant performance improvement among its competitors, solidifying its market leadership.
This dual-focus project encompassed numerous initiatives to enhance both top-line and bottom-line performance. Key top-line initiatives included increasing sales volume, implementing pricing strategies, expanding the share of high-value products, diversifying sales channels, and refining the customer portfolio. A major success was enabling the sales team to adopt profitability-based differentiated sales activities, underpinned by a new management framework.
On the bottom-line side, initiatives focused on productivity improvement, cost reduction in procurement, material usage optimization, logistics efficiencies, product portfolio rationalization, and fostering inter-factory competition through KPI management. Looxent also prioritized delivering practical solutions, ensuring tangible benefits for the client throughout the process.
Enhancing Execution of Core Strategies
Effective execution of core strategies is critical for survival in a highly competitive industry. For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), particularly those without dedicated execution teams, ensuring consistent implementation can be challenging. This was especially relevant for the client, which operates 12 factories nationwide, necessitating widespread alignment across its facilities.
Looxent gained management’s support to oversee the execution of core strategies directly. Beyond managing implementation, Looxent proactively addressed challenges during execution to ensure sustainability. For instance, a key operational strategy involved optimizing factory production allocation based on demand. Previously, these decisions were made intuitively by executives or sales teams. To improve this process, a simulation tool was developed to evaluate the optimal production allocation, considering factors such as manufacturing costs, logistics expenses, and productivity.
Initially, both the sales and production teams were skeptical of the tool and only partially utilized its outputs. Over the course of a year, Looxent demonstrated the tool’s effectiveness through consistent validation of its results, ultimately earning the teams’ full trust. Today, the tool is fully integrated into the business unit’s decision-making process, serving as a cornerstone of monthly production-sales alignment meetings. Looxent’s involvement in presenting analysis results during key meetings further enhanced strategy execution and alignment across teams.
Adapting Project Scope to Evolving Business Needs
Given the client’s diverse business units and factory network, the project required continuous reassessment of priorities and scope to address an ever-changing competitive landscape. The industry was experiencing overcapacity as players pursued aggressive expansion strategies, alongside significant structural shifts in the market.
As part of its growth strategy, the client identified horizontal M&A opportunities as a key pathway to cement its market leadership. Looxent expanded its role to include M&A feasibility assessments, valuation analysis, and integration planning. One acquisition has since been completed, with Looxent actively supporting post-merger integration (PMI). While adhering to the initial blueprint of the Value-Up project, Looxent dynamically adjusted its scope and priorities to align with the client’s strategic needs.
Next Steps and Sustainability
Both the client’s management and its private equity owner have acknowledged Looxent’s pivotal role in driving performance improvements. As a result, the client plans to embark on a third phase of the Value-Up project. This phase will focus on two primary objectives:
This project underscores Looxent’s commitment to delivering sustainable value creation through strategic alignment, execution excellence, and adaptive problem-solving tailored to client needs.