Halma, Rolex & WOSG, RH, Roper, Belron, Ocado, Daily Journal, Idox, Cogent

Published Last Week

1. Halma: Sector M&A Team Incentives

2. Watches of Switzerland: Rolex / Bucherer Acquisition & US Expansion

3. US Auto Collision & Repair: An Insurer's Perspective

4. Restoration Hardware: Product Philosophy & Vendor Relationships

5. Daily Journal: US Judiciary & Court Software Market Dynamics

6. Ocado Technology, Kroger & Online Grocery Economics

7. Roper Technologies: Procare Solutions, Child Care Centers & Growth Opportunities

8. Idox: Software Portfolio, Management, and Sales Process

9. Cogent: Fiber Lifespan, IP Transit Price Deflation & IPv4 Opportunity

Halma: Sector M&A Team Incentives

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been exploring how companies such as Halma and Lifco structure and incentivise the M&A and operational employees at HQ. Halma employs a Sector M&A Team that works closely with operational-focused Divisional Chief Executives to source and execute transactions.

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This interview with a Former Head of M&A in a Halma Sector Team explores how a deal process works internally and incentives throughout the team.

Watches of Switzerland: Rolex / Bucherer Acquisition & US Expansion

Watches of Switzerland Group is the leading luxury watch retailer that has seen its share price affected by Rolex's acquisition of retailer Bucherer. In this interview with a former WOSG executive, the Rolex relationship and the US expansion opportunity is explored in detail:

I think the US is such a massive pie that has been untapped for a long time, so there's a lot of growth to be had there. I think that it's a smart move to focus energy on the US and that, again, has been something that's been, whereas Brian and the team have been reactionary in that if something's doing well, keep doing it, and if something's not doing as well, stop doing it, as opposed to keep beating the dead donkey. So I think that's smart as well. But, yes, I do believe it's in collaboration with the larger strategic plans of Rolex as well. - Former Head of Operations at Watches of Switzerland Group

US Auto Collision & Repair: An Insurer's Perspective

In this interview, a former SVP at GEICO shares a perspective on the evolution of the US auto collision and repair market. While an increase in ADAS penetration may drive lower accident frequency, the higher cost of repair for EVs impacts insurance premiums:

But essentially, there are fewer accidents due to the ADAS systems in electric vehicles and other systems. However, when there is an accident, they are more costly to repair. So, you have fewer accidents but higher repair costs, which will eventually influence whether the premium is the same as other cars, above, or below. It all depends on the frequency of incidents and the severity of repairs... Tesla is particularly concerned about the cost of repairs for electric vehicles. I have some data that I can show you on this topic. It covers the cost of repair for Tesla electric vehicles, other electric vehicles, and internal combustion engine vehicles. It's public record. I'll tell you what the source is, but they're concerned enough about it to know that the cost of insurance is very high. It's 20% to 30% more for electric vehicles, with Tesla on the higher end of that spectrum because they are the most expensive. - Former SVP at GEICO

Restoration Hardware: Product Philosophy & Vendor Relationships

Long lead times and complex supply chains in the home furnishing industry give larger players who have deep relationships with their vendors a competitive advantage when it comes to launching new collections in a timely manner.

I will always say that Restoration Hardware does have an advantage over some smaller retailers. The relationship RH has with these factories is so tight that RH will always be a priority. They will always adapt and flex to whatever request comes from RH. To that extent, they do have a bit of an advantage. - Former VP of Production, Sourcing and QA at Restoration Hardware

In this interview, a former VP of Production, Sourcing and QA at Restoration Hardware sheds light on the company's relationships with its vendors.

Daily Journal: US Judiciary & Court Software Market Dynamics

Today, more than 35% of the US judiciary & court software market is made of homegrown court solutions, which will need to be upgraded over time mainly due to cybersecurity reasons. One of the potential causes for this market fragmentation is that every court system - down to the county level - requires a minimum level of customization.

The larger area of customization is around interfaces. There are over 100 jail management vendors and over 100 RMS vendors on the public safety side, which includes jails and police. There are so many different products, and none of them want a standard interface. Unless the client, meaning the court, insists on a specific interface format, customization becomes necessary. - Director of Business Development at CourtView Justice Solutions

In this interview, a Director of Business Development at CourtView Justice Solutions sheds light on the US judiciary & court software market dynamics.

Ocado Technology, Kroger & Online Grocery Economics

Ocado Group is a UK-listed online grocery retailer that provides its OSP technology platform to third party retailers like Kroger, ICA and Morrisons. The former CEO of its Solutions division describes how the Kroger relationship is different from other OSP partners and gives more context to the expansion struggles it has encountered:

"There have been no issues with the equipment or the software running the warehouses. You won’t find any commentary from Kroger suggesting that the Ocado technology doesn’t work. Of course, as with any technology setup, the end-to-end process involves both Ocado technology and Kroger technology, particularly because Kroger had a significant ecommerce business. Unlike most Ocado partners, Kroger chose to continue running their existing webshop and decided to integrate it with the Ocado backend. - Former CEO of Ocado Solutions

Roper Technologies: Procare Solutions, Child Care Centers & Growth Opportunities

This interview with the Former Head of Sales at Procare Solutions, a recent large acquisition by Roper, explores the underlying quality of the business in more detail:

Procare has been developing software specifically tailored to the needs of daycare and childcare center owners for 30 years. Historically, it's a relatively small business type market, as most of these business owners aren't necessarily tech-savvy. Most of them ran their business either through multiple piecemeal systems or entirely manually. The need for them to be able to run a daycare or childcare center business from start to finish is really Procare's mission. They provide an end-to-end software system that makes it easy for daycare and childcare centers to run their business, communicate with parents, which is crucial, and also communicate with their staff, as well as manage payments. To me, the biggest value is the payment aspect, making it simple and easy for parents of these kids at these daycare centers to see what's happening with their children and also make payments electronically. - Former VP, Sales at Procare

Idox: Software Portfolio, Management, and Sales Process

This interview with a Former Head of Sales at Idox explores the company's management and sales process for Idox Uniform and Cloud.

The COO is the most important person in that company. The CEO does the investor stuff with Anoop. Dave Meaden does the investor stuff with Anoop. And therein lies a problem with how the business will grow. And having seen the figures this morning, it's blatantly obvious that it's hardly growing at all. If you took out, for example, land and property, you took out the EMAP stuff, it's grown by 9% in land and property. And at least 5% or 6% of that will be RPI. And the same with assets and communities. In fact, both of those are going down or just about holding their own. - Former Head of Sales, Europe at Idox

Cogent: Fiber Lifespan, IP Transit Price Deflation & IPv4 Opportunity

While big tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and META have built robust networks to connect all their data centers and internet points of presence, they do not offer IP transit. That's mainly because their cloud-connect products depend entirely on telecos and lack the necessary peering agreements to do so.

They do not want to compete directly with us... They lack the necessary peering. Amazon is arguably the closest to achieving this, but they still rely on companies like Cogent for their Internet because they do not have peering with everyone and need to manage off-net routes. - Former Strategic Capture - Hyperscaler Division - at Lumen Technologies

In this interview, a former Strategic Capture - Hyperscaler Division - at Lumen Technologies talk about the future of IP transit, the effect of price deflation as well as the IPv4 opportunity.