A fast-track to IPO

A New Zealand entrepreneur has cracked a business model that fast-tracks the growth of small to medium businesses and enables them to go global. 

Callum Laing, a Singapore based businessman, author and partner in private equity company, Unity Group, brings together like-minded businesses from around the world under one company umbrella to provide a platform for them to grow and scale to the next level. 

He successfully applied the ‘agglomeration business model’ in his adopted home and is now bringing it back to New Zealand where he is confident it can be adopted by SMEs. 

“With this model, SMEs in New Zealand can become more powerful, agile and appealing by collaborating with businesses within the same sector and can soon be on a growth trajectory. We work with debt free and profitable SMEs to help scale their business by providing them access to the advantages of a large public listed company,” says Laing. 

Three New Zealand companies have already experienced success from ‘agglomeration’ as part of The Marketing Group PLC, which boasts one of the best performing stocks on the European Nasdaq in 2016.   
The Marketing Group was formed with four initial companies and now has 19 agencies in 32 offices globally and is one of the fastest growing marketing companies in the world.  

“This model allows the business owner to benefit from all of the shareholder value associated with a public listing, such as scalability and tendering for large business, yet still maintain full control over their business,” says Laing. 

He will be in Auckland at the end of this month to meet with potential small/medium businesses that are interested in adopting this unique business model. Laing says industries that have potential include childcare/education, health and fitness, technology, and property services.  

The New Zealand economy is represented by close to 97 percent SMEs and while Laing believes the potential for many of them is remarkable, those best placed to benefit from ‘agglomeration’ are businesses that have reached a reasonable level of profit but hit a “growth ceiling”. 

“New Zealand is full of innovators and start-ups which is fantastic, but agglomeration will work for a well-established small to medium business that makes a profit in the region of $1M to $4M with a small team who want to see growth tenfold in the future.”  
www.callumlaing.com