Preparing for Sale
Home Contact Us Home-version 2 Service page About Us Office Location Post template Home Contact Us Home-version 2 Service page About Us Office Location Post template Preparing for Sale Acquisition, Acquisition Strategy, Preparing for Sale, Strategic review, Technology December 2, 2025 Introduction to the shareholders of Unicomm Gary Roberts and Simon Drew established Unicomm in 2009, following careers in the IT and Telco space. Initially, the move towards founding their own business was made in order to build relationships with manufacturers. The pair were approached by an IT company to set up a new business, and formed what was known as iHotDesk. After 2 years, one of the directors left and Unicomm was subsequently formed. “It had always been an ambition for the us to start, own, manage, and sell a business. It was a good ambition to fulfill right the way through to the end of the sale. It was a good journey, a lot off ups and downs along the way, but all worthwhile”. Simon Drew, Unicomm Highlights from business ownership? SD: We learnt a lot from the process of owning a business. We had the ups and downs, it was good fun, but also stressful – when it’s just two of your running the business and covering so many aspects of the business – but we managed. GR: I think it gets to a level where everything is running along smoothly, and then something causes a complete U-turn or a change of direction. Whether that’s an industry shift, for example going from one premise to Hosted, which we adapted to really easily,because we didn’t have any sales force. But it’s constantly changing and constantly re-evolving. GR: We’re seeing that in the industry now, that there’s another change coming, and it’s always challenging to do that and trying to get things back up to where you are. But it seemed a constant sort of roller-coaster of a journey and Covid was a classic example of how quickly it can change. What was the target customer for Unicomm? SD: We had no particular vertical. We just concentrated on companies that were sort of in and around London. GR: Both of our experiences were dealing with medium size businesses rather than small businesses, but some larger businesses. So, we just concentrated on what we were good at. GR: It goes back to the early days, where we got a deal wherever there’s a deal to be had. So, because when you’re building a business from nothing, it was like anywhere you can get. A lot of our business came from referrals. So, people would introduce us to people and say these guys are looking for something. So, it was really following where the referrals were taking us. When and why did you first consider an exit? SD: Covid changed the market a hell of a lot. 2025 was our initial idea of when we would have sold if COVID had not have happened. After COVID, the market changed massively. More people were just doing Teams meetings and it took the enjoyment out of what we enjoyed of the job – of going and seeing customers and meeting customers face to face. So, because of that reason and we were getting calls all the time about are we looking to sell, we decided to speak to Evolution Capital and really understand the process of what would have to go through for if we did sell the business and what sort of valuation we would get. GR: We were also getting approached by vendors and consultants and say, you know, now was the right time. The multiples are high. So, curiosity really drove us something. And there were other people were talking to and it came to the point of, yeah,that’s, that’s its property. I got a decent valuation and then make a decision based on that. Did you have any goals or aspirations before entering into the sales process? GR: We knew what we would like,but not what it was going to get. This was part of why we wanted to engage with advisors such as Evolution Capital, to get that experience of what the multiple could look like and what the valuation would be at that moment in time. It was sort of a roundabout way, we thought it would be based on what we knew with the industry or what we’d heard, but you never know until you get a proper team who knows about valuations in the sector, giving you that valuation. Why did you engage with Evolution Capital in 2019? GR: We were just understanding the process. I mean, we actually went through the process of buying a mobile business. And in that process, we understood how important it was to engage with professionals to help you through that. That business didn’t go through because due diligence showed that it wasn’t worth the valuation put to it. GR: So, it was in that process,I think we had learned that we need to get people to understand the whole process, that you’ve got to go through it, be or seem like an insurance policy to make sure that what you set out to achieve, you do achieve. Did you engage with any other advisors before selecting Evolution Capital to guide you through the exit process? GR: We just felt that Evolution Capital were a better fit for us because of the level of detail and the granularity you go to, to give us the reassurance we were going to get the right sort of representation. GR: There was another guy that was a private sort of individual whose presentation was very similar to yours,may have had some involvement in the past, but we just felt the strength and the depth of what you provide during the due diligence, that will everything you involved with the transaction made us feel much more comfortable. Did you specifically seek an advisor who would guide you from start to finish? GR: