Posted:30-September-2024
New Owner Has Big Plans For Revive! Preston
Mergers and acquisitions specialist Rohit Kumra has just completed perhaps his most important deal ever – to buy his own business. He’s pretty pleased with trading results so far – and has big plans for future growth.
He bought award winning Revive! Preston from previous owner Mike Morgan. The re-sale has enabled Mike to fulfil his dream of living and working in the United States. For Rohit and his wife Shilpi the acquisition is the first step towards building a portfolio of businesses in the North West.
Commenting on the sale of his business Mike said: “After starting my franchise business back in 2012, working from a single van, I’m proud of what we achieved at Revive! Preston over the years, including being awarded Franchisee of the Year at our annual conference in 2017. In recent years, my family and I have built a new life in the US, so the time is right to move on now and I am leaving the business in capable hands under new owner Rohit. I wish all at Revive! all the best and would particularly like to thank Mark Llewellyn and Terry Mullen for all their help and support over my years in the Revive! network.”
With a master’s degree in business economics from India’s prestigious Delhi University and a MBA from Manchester University, 38-year-old Rohit has a passion for mergers and acquisitions, achieving impressive growth for every organisation he has worked for since his early days at Ernst and Young. Latterly he led all of Cox Automotive’s M & A deals outside the USA, but when the world’s largest automotive services and technology provider decided to halt further expansion, Rohit was made redundant in December 2023. He was at a crossroads. Where should he take his career next?
He explains: “At the start of 2024 my mindset was to look for jobs or consulting opportunities, but after three months I found I had weaned myself off the ‘habit’ of just being in a job and getting a salary on a monthly basis. I started to think ‘if I can do it for employers why can’t I do it for myself?’ I come from a family of entrepreneurs and always thought that one day I would like to start something of my own.”
He didn’t want a business he would have to start from scratch. He wanted a management opportunity where there would be repeat customer business and good prospects for scaling up.
“The franchise model looked like an excellent choice for me because of the huge support provided by the franchise operational team, ” he continued, “so I started to look at the best franchise brands to work with and Revive! came up. Suddenly what caught my eye was the fact that Revive! Preston was also for sale. We already lived in the Manchester area, so I started looking seriously at the numbers.”
Rohit approached the acquisition of Revive! Preston just as he would have in his previous corporate roles. “The actual buying of the business was very comfortable for me because I have a background in M & A. What I really liked about Revive! HQ was how supportive they were. It was a tripartite deal, and we were all on the same side. Mike wanted to exit, I wanted to enter and Revive! wanted the business to flourish further so it all worked out well.”
Rohit carried out a thorough strategic review of every aspect of Revive! Preston, looking at ways to maximise the productivity of his two technicians, two vans business. He moved quickly to implement changes including upping the Google pay per click budget to boost retail enquiries and enhancing customer service, all of which resulted in achieving an immediate uplift in sales in August.
But it hasn’t all been easy. Rohit admits that he has learned a lot since acquiring Revive! Preston. “If you are buying a muti-million-pound company you have to look at many things but you have teams of people working with you on it. The main difference now is everything has to be done by me. I’ve learned more in the past three months than I have in the past ten years because my previous roles were mostly project management. There’s a difference between knowing what someone else is doing versus actually doing it yourself. This sense of responsibility is something which I definitely cherish knowing that my efforts here will directly benefit not just me but my technicians too.”
Looking to the future Rohit has ambitious plans. To meet the growing demand from dealerships he will be adding another wheel van and technician as soon as possible and a fourth van is on the cards for early next year. Longer term Rohit wants to grow his Revive! business through acquiring neighbouring territories, whilst Shilpi is working towards building a network of child day-care businesses.
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