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by Catherine Woods - Monday, 7th April 2008

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The £240m-revenue company has done more than a dozen acquisitions and initially focused on developing the potential of the companies individually rather than bringing them under the one brand.

“We did that well,” Burt says. “We had acquisitions and strong organic growth but the group looked like a federation and after a while that became a sub-optimal situation. It you take some of those walls down, you’ll get a better sales situation and get some the synergies.

“Having defended the initial strategy very much, it comes to a point where you have to say: ‘We need one company to give us sustainability and scalability to drive forward.’ Every now and again you do have to consolidate.”

Consolidation meant a wholesale brand change for 2e2 that involved, among other things, new managers. Burt says: “There was an awful lot of process work and so on. You look at the structure and you see you’ve got four purchasing managers that were all good in the environment they were in but may not be as good in the new environment.

“We had to do a lot of cultural change and organisational change. It’s been a major exercise and we’re about 18 months into it with another six to nine months to go.”

It’s hoped the change of brand will raise 2e2’s profile among trade circles. Burt says while the company is well known in the financial community, it needs to raise its profile in the marketplace.

“There’s a need to educate the market about what we stand for and ultimately get the point across about where we add value,” he says. “If we can do that, it hopefully makes us one of the automatic choices for clients.”

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Tags: terry burt, 2e2, consolidation, brand change, trade circles, market awareness, entrepreneur, cultural change,