Investment firm Snow Phipps acquires ECRM
BOSTON – BV Investment Partners on Thursday announced the sale of ECRM, an integrated services, software and data provider serving consumer product manufacturers and retailers, to Snow Phipps Group.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Over the last three years we have worked closely with CEO Greg Farrar and the management team to execute successfully on our multi-faceted strategic operating plan for ECRM," stated Justin Harrison, managing director BV. "The achievements include increasing attendance at existing EPPS meetings, expanding into new categories, acquiring a complementary outdoor sporting press event business, upgrading the software and creating year-round client engagement through the creation of unique content and revising the sales model," he said. "Greg and his team also successfully scaled and sold ECRM’s data business during the course of our ownership. We’re very pleased with the outcome of these efforts for both our investors and ECRM’s clients and employees.”
“After being recruited by BV at the time of its investment, we quickly put our heads together to architect the blueprints for the company’s growth strategy," Farrar said. "I’m proud of the work we did together and look forward to continuing to lead this organization and to providing exceptional service to our clients and industry partners.”
Co-founded by Ian Snow and Ogden Phipps in 2005, Snow Phipps generally targets companies in attractive sectors or sub-sectors and then utilizes its operating partners and management teams to seek to raise these companies to higher levels of growth and performance. "We consider ourselves to be constructive partners, not only financial investors," the firm states on its web page. "We believe our collective investment and industry experience enables us to evaluate investment opportunities and effectively work with management teams to execute our shared strategic vision."
Headquartered in New York, Snow Phipps has overseen the deployment of over $1.7 billion of private equity capital and co-investments in 17 platform investments and over 25 add-on acquisitions since inception.
ECRM drives efficiencies in the buying and selling processes between consumer product manufacturers and retailers via its portfolio of highly-focused, Efficient Program Planning Sessions and proprietary software that streamlines interactions between trading partners before, during and after each session. The company serves manufacturers and retailers within a number of key product categories including health and beauty care, general merchandise, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and electronics.
BV acquired the business in July 2013 through a proprietary transaction with the company’s founding family, who maintained a minority position in ECRM.
Robert W. Baird & Co. served as financial advisor and Choate, Hall and Stewart acted as legal counsel to ECRM and BV Investment Partners in this transaction.