How to Sell a Business Six Times With Andrew Cope

Andrew Cope joined vehicle leasing firm Zenith in 1989 as its most junior founder, working his way up to chief executive and taking the business through six buyouts between 2003 and 2014, growing it past £600 million in turnover and selling to HgCapital for over £200 million. Along the way, a credit crunch left the business one phone call from collapse. 

He then bought vehicle management and accident recovery business FMG in an Endless-backed buyout, taking it from £22 million to over £100 million in turnover in fifteen months before selling to Redde plc.

Andrew joins Josh on After the Handshake to talk through three decades of dealmaking; why does growth take longer to compound than people expect, what private equity gets right and where it falls short, and why he ran every deal on a principle borrowed from eighteenth-century naval captains.