SFW has a well-defined investment philosophy that guides our investment activities. This philosophy is manifested in the partnerships we develop, in our approach to building businesses and in our commitment to alignment with our investors and management. We believe adhering to these principles leads to superior results for everyone involved in our investments. Partnership We have a profound respect for the talented people that drive success in the businesses that operate in our target markets and we develop strong, collegial relationships with management teams based on three core principles: mutual respect, common goals and trust. These core principles are what enable us to be a productive, collaborative partner, and facilitate an open, informed dialogue with our management partners. Over time we have found that taking this approach enables SFW and management to act more swiftly and decisively when capitalizing on opportunities or addressing challenges.The CEOs, senior managers and industry executives we have worked with in the past are strong believers in our approach and are, collectively, one of the largest investors in our fund. Focused Business Building We limit our investment activity to a small number of businesses to allow the focus necessary to achieve our goal of building market-leaders. We work closely with management to support the development of each company's strategic plan and initiatives to improve growth, profitability, operational effectiveness and, ultimately, business value. By dedicating our resources in this way, we enable management teams to expand the scope or accelerate the time frames of their business plans. The effectiveness of this focused approach has been demonstrated through the achievement of substantial growth and improved profitability at each of our prior investments.As part of this philosophy, we let business plans determine the appropriate capital structures for our investments. For this reason, we typically employ lower levels of leverage than available in the market to ensure that ample resources are in place to support the development of each business. Commitment We take the necessary steps to ensure a genuine alignment of interests exists at every level of SFW. The SFW partners are among the largest investors in our fund, with each investing substantial personal capital. In addition, the management teams we support make meaningful personal investments in their own companies, and we create attractive incentive structures to further increase management ownership based on performance.To further demonstrate our alignment with investors and management, we do not charge transaction fees when we acquire or divest a business, unlike other private equity firms. Ultimately, SFW and the management teams we support will be measured by the return we deliver to our investors. Therefore, all participants in our investments are collectively focused on capital appreciation to create economic rewards from our investments. |
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