BrazilBritish consultancy CIL Management Consultants launches in France
British consultancy CIL Management Consultants has launched a new office in Paris, its third in Europe and fourth worldwide.
The new office, which comes around a year after CIL Management Consultants expanded into Munich, comes according to managing partner Jon Whiteman in response to growing demand for the firm’s services from French mid-market companies and private equity houses.
“We’ve been serving French clients and operating in the French markets for a number of years, but to better serve them and increase the client base, we've invested in full delivery teams and an office incentral Paris.”
“France is the second largest economy on the continent, and is therefore a really important piece in the jigsaw puzzle of our global expansion.”
Founded in 1986, CIL Management Consultants is a boutique consultancy specialised in four lines of business: strategy, due diligence during mergers & acquisitions, value creation in post-deal phases, and pricing.
On the strategy side of its business, CIL Management Consultants is secretive about its work. The firm operates in the client space below the corporate segment targeted by the major strategy houses such as McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and the likes. In that space – CIL will however face stiff competition from other global groups focused on the segment and local homegrown strategic players.
In the transactions space, CIL Management Consultants delivers strategic and commercial due diligence studies for transactions. With private equity groups, the firm tends to stay on board longer, working with portfolio companies on growth and restructuring.
“And we've got a range of products outside of strategy and transactional work, which can support growth during a private equity hold period. With inflationary pressures and cost increases everywhere, pricing is a really good example. Medium-sized businesses typically do not have pricing experts within their organisations, so our pricing practice can help organisations decide how to optimise their pricing and profitability,” said Whiteman.
The new office is led by Nahel Rachet, who joined CIL’s London office five years ago as an Analyst and has built up his career within the firm to become Senior Manager and France lead. Along with Rachet, an initial core team from the London office has relocated as the firm seeks to grow a local presence.
“We need to hire really talented graduates from French colleges and universities, but also senior people from France with well-rounded experience. And we think we can do that because we've proven it inAmerica and Germany. CIL provides a great mix of being part of a growing international company – offering an entrepreneurial edge to create a start-up atmosphere, but with a fantastic mothership that ensures funding, expertise, and stability.”
