Performance turnaround at global construction product manufacturing group

A European headquartered global construction product manufacturing & distribution group with a C. and S. American Division located across 14 countries
The Division was consistently the worst performing business unit in the Group
Interventions from Europe had failed to address the issues and turn performance around
Performance was poor with an EBITDA generation significantly lower than the Group average
Underperformance was a consequence of a multitude of issues: poor sales disciplines, inefficient production, lack of adequate cost management and ineffective leadership
Previous attempts to turn the business around with other consultancies had failed
The challenge was not only to quickly improve performance, but to set up the business for sustainable profitable growth

With our Alliance Partner for C. and S. America, Curzon established a programme team to implement a comprehensive change effort
A focus on commercial performance including pricing management and product mix optimised the market opportunities and stopped margin give-away
Introduction of lean practices in manufacturing and distribution facilities improved productivity and started to tackle excess inventories
Organisational changes were made to reduce management overheads and to streamline support functions
Initiatives were piloted in country businesses and the learning was transferred to other business units through a centrally managed process to coordinate and accelerate the impact

Within one year the division rose from the worst to the best performer in the Group
The combination of programme and other initiatives were delivering measurable bottom-line savings with a headline profitability run-rate that had tripled
Change was happening on a broad base and over 1000 staff across multiple countries were involved improving the business
Capability development and introduction of new tools, disciplines and ways of working had provided a solid platform to sustain the results