Case Study
Private Equity Backed Wholesale Nursery Products Company Halts Three-Year EBITDA Decline and Delivers 500 BPS EBITDA Margin Improvement in 26 Weeks Through SIOP and Agricultural Yield Optimization
500
BPS EBITDA Margin Improvement
Strategic Imperative
To optimize overall profit by developing and implementing an effective SIOP process that matches crop output to forward demand and synchronizes demand intelligence, capacity deployment, and supply management across the company’s operating network, improving business profitability while enhancing customer satisfaction
Client Background
- Leading $500M North American supplier of ornamental shrubs and color plants serving every major U.S. regional market
- Thirteen operating units supported nationwide markets through distributed agricultural production, inventory, and customer fulfillment
- Agricultural output required synchronization of forward demand, growing capacity, supply availability, and regional market requirements
- Retail nursery consolidation intensified competition and increased pressure to protect pricing, market position, and customer satisfaction
- Private equity backing increased expectations for stronger profit performance and scalable execution across the business
- EBITDA and pricing had remained depressed for three years, establishing a clear baseline for transformation
Key Issues & Barriers
- Leadership team had been loosely assembled through acquisitions, limiting consensus, cohesion, and enterprise-wide accountability
- Management structure lacked appropriate spans of control, weakening ownership and supervisory effectiveness across operating units
- Agricultural standard operating procedures were minimally available and not consistently used across production operations
- Production standards and control methods were loosely developed and inconsistently applied across crops and locations
- Supervisory capability remained underdeveloped, limiting day-to-day control, coaching, and adherence to agricultural standards
- Demand, supply, and capacity planning were not effectively synchronized, contributing to misaligned crop output and forward demand
Key Implementation Components
- Developed leadership team consensus, coherence, and effectiveness around profit, customer service, and operating priorities
- Designed and deployed a new management structure with appropriate spans of control and clearer accountabilities
- Fully upgraded the SIOP process to align forward demand, crop output, capacity deployment, and supply management
- Designed and implemented an organization-wide operating model to strengthen managerial performance control and execution discipline
- Developed and applied agricultural operating standards to improve yield, consistency, and resource utilization across operating units
Benefits & Results
500 BPS
EBITDA Margin Improvement
13%
Productivity/Footprint Improvement
30%
Headcount Reduction
400%+
First-Year ROI