Pricing Strategy for Private Equity
Pricing due diligence, 100-day pricing plans and EBITDA uplift programs for private equity owners and their portfolio companies.
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Why pricing belongs in the value-creation plan
Price is usually the fastest EBITDA lever in a portfolio company. A one-point lift in realised price can raise earnings by up to 20%, and most of it arrives within the first year of ownership. Cost programs take longer, and volume growth needs investment.
Yet most investee companies still price by habit: cost-plus list prices, rep-led discounting, and rebates nobody has reviewed since the last owner. That leakage is upside for a new owner, and a risk if a competitor or a large customer finds it first.
How we work with private equity
Pricing due diligence
Before you buy, we test the sales history for price realisation, discount leakage, customer concentration and pricing-power risk, then size the upside and the downside for the investment case.
100-day pricing plan
After completion, we set quick wins on discount control, rebate clean-up and price-increase readiness, with an EBITDA bridge the board can track month by month.
Portfolio price optimisation
Project Blackbird delivers an optimised SKU and customer price file. The first file is usually in market through a pilot within 8–12 weeks.
Pricing capability and governance
Decision rights, approval rules and reporting that keep the gains in place through management changes and an eventual exit.
What a private equity partner says
"Pricing Insight were engaged by Advent Partners to assist in developing pricing and margin strategies for several of our investee companies. In one case they helped us generate an incremental EBITDA lift of 20% through the application of sophisticated price modelling techniques. We continue to use Pricing Insight for due diligence and our 100 day plans."
Mark Jago, Partner, Advent Partners
Results relevant to private equity owners
Engagements where pricing changed the EBITDA line within 12 months.
Bunzl
Bunzl replaced cost-plus pricing across 18,000 SKUs, lifting gross margin by 800bps on targeted SKUs (A$5.7m EBIT) within 12 months while retaining 98.3% of customers.
Hyster-Yale Asia Pacific
Hyster-Yale Asia Pacific moved from a A$100k annual EBIT loss to a A$3m gain within 12 months by controlling discounting and focusing sales on the right segments.
Toll Group
Toll Group modelled A$8.4m of year-one EBIT uplift on A$1.1b of revenue through algorithmic pricing, new approval workflows and value-linked customer agreements.
Planning an acquisition or a 100-day plan?
Talk to Ron Wood about pricing due diligence or a value-creation plan for a portfolio company.
Let’s work together
Whether you're ready to optimise your pricing or want to explore what's possible, we'd love to hear from you.