About Lewellyn Technology | Evolution Capital Partners

About

Lewellyn Technology is a national leader in workplace safety providing complete solutions for owners/operators of commercial facilities in industrial, distribution, healthcare, education, REIT and retail organizations. Their offerings include Electrical (arc flash/NFPA 70E) and Combustible Dust safety, facility and hazard assessments, engineering, safety program development and onsite employee training. The company is now part of Seam Group.

The Problem

Recent regulatory changes had created tremendous opportunity in the marketplace. However, the Lewellyn management team was working with outdated, inefficient sales methodology and delivery systems. Assistance was needed to convert the business from a transactional model to a service business for companies who valued the expertise and partnership Lewellyn could provide.

The Partnership

Evolution Capital Partners entered in 2012, implementing their Five Fundamentals methodology:

Fundamental #1:  Accurate & Timely Financials

  • Lewellyn used a third party to generate monthly financials which was delaying receipt of the monthly package. They also were not matching revenue and expenses by project. With Evolution support, management hired a Controller, improved financial reporting, established a daily dashboard that was distributed to senior management and tracked projects according to GAAP.

Fundamental #2:  Achievable & Measurable Strategic Plan

  • The process drove a more robust strategic plan, including a new Go-to-Market strategy enabled by a proprietary technology platform. This electronic operating platform, when deployed to field technicians, would streamline data collection capabilities and increase operating efficiencies by 30 percent. Once the technology platform was in place, the company was able to expand its total service offerings from one to five.

Fundamental #3:  Aligned & Experienced Leadership

  • The Lewellyn team identified one of its largest challenges to growing the business as recruiting talent in the rural area where the headquarters was located. In a bold move, they decided to relocate from Linton, Indiana, to Indianapolis to take advantage of a larger and more skilled labor pool. They continued to professionalize and established alignment by hiring a new executive management team including a CEO, CFO, CAO, President and Chief Engineer.

Fundamental #4:  Transparency & Accountability of Team

  • Process documentation was critical. A new hiring process as well as a detailed outline of job responsibilities for Lewellyn field techs and engineers were documented. The training program that followed enabled these technical teams to capitalize on the expanded business opportunities in arc flash, combustible dust and lock out tag out.

Fundamental #5:  Effective & Repeatable Sales Process

  • Management was able to identify Lewellyn’s target market as larger Fortune 1000 companies whose leaders emphasized safety as a core value. Go-to-market strategy changed from hosting seminars nationally for single facility operators to using channel partners to follow up on a direct calling effort. These efforts focused on Fortune 1000, healthcare, education, government and military agencies, as well as REITS and national commercial real estate services. Companies with these profiles purchased a suite of services and were a source of repeatable income, making Lewellyn a much more predictable business.

The Results (2012 – 2017):

100

Revenue Growth

200

EBITDA Growth

135

Team Growth

6

Named to Inc. 5000