29 OCTOBER 2025 LONDON

INVESTING IN SC&L OPERATORS & LOGISTICS PROVIDERS

Operational value creation
Growth capital to fund transformations
Leveraging SC&L enterprise & logistics technology
M&A for market consolidation & vertical integration
Sustainability as a competitive advantage
Human capital & skills
Outsource partnerships

Days
Hours
Minutes

Who should attend

FEATURED PARTICIPANTS

SC&L VALUE CREATION LEADERS

SCLI SPEAKER - VICTORIA COBOS, DECKERS BRANDS

SCLI SPEAKER - SHAUN PLUNKETT, SPRINGER NATURE

SCLI SPEAKER - KERRYN HAYNES, NOMAD FOODS

Enterprise technology investment landscape & showcases

Data & digitalisation
Advanced analytics & process optimisation
Planning & inventory optimisation
Procurement & contract management
Visibility & orchestration
ESG & risk management

Which technologies are being adopted and by whom?
What tangible RoI are enterprise technologies delivering for supply chain operators?
Which enterprise technology sectors are over- or under-served?
Which enterprise technology segments are gaining most investment?
Where are the gaps?
What are the prospects for consolidation and M&A activity?

GLOBAL SC&L INDUSTRY TRENDS IMPACT ON SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY

Tariffs & trade barriers
Deglobalisation, near-shoring & resilience
Network design & footprint
Supplier selection & risk management

How should GPs tailor funds for LPs?
What operational credentials to LPs want to see?
How are capital structures adapting to interest rates and financial volatility?
Which structures for which investment categories?
- Lease & revenue-sharing for infrastructure & assets?
- Convertible notes, equity & SAFE agreements for early-stage?
- Co-investments & JVs for growth?

Target discovery & due diligence

Target sectors & segments
Developing the investment thesis
Operational due diligence
Cultural alignment
Tech stack integration

How to identify targets with good fundamentals but lacking capital or expertise?
What drives value and makes a target attractive for acquisition?
Which technologies will create most value?
What is the role of AI in target discovery and due diligence?
What can Operating Partners add that data and AI can't?

Are there "easy wins" through procurement & cost reduction?
Longer-term transformations but with greater potential?
How to assess and prioritise operational excellence improvements?
How to eliminate siloed thinking for cross-functional alignment for operational value creation?
How to collaborate with suppliers to support innovation?
Is vertical integration a winning strategy?

How to long-term visions with innovation needs?
How to use corporate clienting to nurture innovation opportunities?
Which investment models work best?
How to combine internal ventures with external innovation?
Exit or integrate?
How to successfully integrate innovation into a parent company?

Logistics technology

Freight tech: multi-modal optimisation, fleet management, electric & autonomous vehicles
Warehouse tech: automation & robotics, AR, packaging, fulfilment & e-commerce / D2C
Last mile: autonomous vehicles & drones, delivery & returns
Asset monitoring, IoT & blockchain

Which logistics technologies offer the most potential for efficiencies, innovation & value creation?
Which types of supply chains have most to gain and how are technology innovators responding?
How can digitalising assets & automating workflows create value?
What is the full potential for robotics and autonomous vehicles?
How can you harness transactional data to drive process design, automation & innovation?

Infrastructure

Deglobalisation & emerging logistics hubs
Energy infrastructure for freight & cargo
Multi-modal integration
Warehouse location & design

Which regions and countries will rise and fall as logistics hubs?
How does industrial scale clean energy infrastructure need to adapt to enable sustainable supply chains?
What investment is needed in UK sea ports, airports, road and rail infrastructure?
How should warehouse and distribution centre locations adapt to serve customer demand and support sustainability and resilience?

Outsource Partnerships

Logistics Service Providers & 3/4PLs
Global Competence Centres / Supply Chain as a Service (SCaaS)
Outsourced manufacturing & critical suppliers

What are core competences and value drivers versus what should be outsourced?
How can key partnerships in logistics and supply chain go beyond transactional, lowest cost calculations to become value drivers?
How to align incentives with key outsource partners?

How will roles evolve with AI and what future skills will be needed?
How to find leaders able to create value through rapid and lasting change?
How to capture valuable knowledge and skills before it moves on?

How can finance maximise the deployment of limited CAPEX budgets?
How to optimise inventory and free up working capital?
How can FP&A / XP&A processes lead the delivery of value creation and strategy?
How can blockchain create efficiencies in supply chain and trade finance?

09.00-09.30

Key SC&L trends shaping supply chain strategy

AI & machine learning creating cross-enterprise opportunities for tech innovation & value creation
Deglobalisation & near-shoring
Tariffs & trade barriers
Volatility & disruption
Inflation & working capital constraints
ESG & innovation
Supplier diversification
Cyber security

09.30-10.00

The investment landscape: operators, 3/4PLs, warehousing & delivery

Which operator segments offer the most value creation potential?
Overview of investment activity among SC&L operators
How is this likely to evolve?

10.00-10.30

The evolving role of operating partners

Due diligence
Aligning the investment thesis with strategy
Operational value creation & change management
People, skills & culture

11.00-11.30

Financing value creation

The added value of smart, flexible & patient capital compared to traditional bank loans
What do private investors want to see before investing their capital?
Investment vehicles & deal structures
Making the most of your CAPEX budget

11.30-12.00

3/4PLs and LSPs: The most critical partnerships?

To what extent should supply chains outsource logistics and what are the implications for their core competences and internal skills?
Is there a conflict between short-term cost savings and asset efficiency versus the longer-term strategic need to design, control and invest in your logistics capability?
Who funds investments in automation, electric vehicles and decarbonisation? Customers have the money and incentive but 3PLs have the expertise
Reconfiguring partnerships from open-book / low margin toward closed book / co-investment?
Could a major 3PL vertically integrate by acquiring a retail, reversing the traditional power dynamic?

12.00-12.30

Business Excellence Frameworks for due diligence and operational value creation

Why and how did business excellence get a bad name?
Redefining excellence in the context of AI, advanced analytics, ESG and other megatrends
Due diligence and assessing current maturity levels and gaps
Planning, managing and tracking progress of operational value creation programmes
Examples from private lending and private equity applications

SCLI SPEAKER - Marc Escande

12.30-13.00

Global Competence Centres: a bridge to value creation?

Outsourcing (captive or non-captive): beyond wage arbitrage towards best practice centralisation & vehicles for value creation
Which functions and processes should be centralised and which not?
What can a concentration of expertise bring to supply chain & logistics businesses?
What are the obstacles related to process redesign & standardisation, integrating GCCs with existing functions & stakeholder engagement?

SCLI SPEAKER - Geeta Malhotra

14.00-14.30

Sustainability for Competitive Advantage

Aligning cross-functional collaboration to strategic goals through S&OP / IBP
Data integration for enhanced decision-making and ability to respond to challenges and opportunities
Inventory optimisation (avoiding over- or under-stocks) improves cashflow and profitability
Improved forecast accuracy for optimal resource allocation
Integrating financial planning with operational planning for effective budgeting and strategy execution

SCLI SPEAKER - Ergem Senyuva-2

14.30-15.00

S&OP / IBP as the engine of value creation

How to know whether a portco is 'tech ready'?
Where to focus to gain operational efficiencies and create value?
Which tech vendors? Established names, agile startups or somewhere in between?

15.00-15.30

Human capital, skills & incentivisation

Assessing current human capital and any gaps to deliver the investment thesis
Tailoring skills programmes to specific needs and circumstances
How to develop senior leadership skills?
How to maintain morale if significant restructuring is required?
The role of employee ownership programmes
How operating partners connect investors with their portcos to deliver value creation

09.00-09.30

Opening Keynote: The Future of Supply Chain & Logistics Investments

Senior Partner, Private Equity Investor

Global supply chain & logistics shifts inc. nearshoring / friend shoring
Macroeconomic & geopolitical risks inc. tariffs
Where PE capitalism flowing in the sector

14.30-15.45

Roundtable discussions

Ensuring the strategic plan is operationally fit across finance, procurement, production & distribution

Many strategic plans don't survive first contact with reality because they were developed with a top-down process with embedded assumptions that next year will look similar to last year. Value creation implies fundamental transformation of the operating model which requires symbiotic development including all functions with unified metrics across the business.

Ensuring the strategic plan is operationally fit across finance, procurement, production & distribution

"I really enjoyed the day and thought it was well organised and informative. I did go into this thinking it was going to have some hard sell but that was not the case and the vendors were really part of the discussion"

Stuart Pritchard
RTS Textiles

"Very clear, loved the online personal agenda, time to set up my preferences etc. Had three people from very different industries yet common problems, great to connect and share insights."

Mike Shaverin
Mars

"A good day; glad I made the effort and several follow-ups already in progress"

Iain Harris
KP Snacks

"Numbers of people just right and allowed individuals to properly catch up. Atmosphere was relaxed and liked that the sales pitches from those companies sponsoring was relatively informal"

Neil Brown
Martin Brower

"Another super valuable session with an amazing mix of people who are all solution driven"

Matt Spencer-Skeen
Mundipharma

"A great mix of scale of business, industries and experience. I love the format of structured 121s with peers. I came to this with a real lack of understanding of the potential for AI, so this was an eye opener for me"

Dan Bird
Abcam

"Realised that others are also operating with a high degree of uncertainty following not just external macro economics dynamics but structural changes taking place internally. Clarity on the 3 problems we a trying to solve"

Angelo Bernardinello
LSA International

"[Discussions were the] best bit… Great to share and get each other's input and insight"

Adam Grimwood
AB Agri

"Was a great session and got some good information out of the day"

Lee Crowhurst
Cranfield Aerospace

"Sessions were insightful and good to see a range of speakers from different industries and consultancy as well as practitioners. Personal agenda is very helpful and also seeing who else will be joining the sessions is beneficial"

Matt Normington
LEGO

"Very informative and good to hear real life experiences not just theory. I felt my time was being treated as important and not being wasted. Made some good contacts and shared some valuable tips. Great fun at the end"

Alan Clarke
Landmann

"A very worthwhile day. A really great bunch of attendees and good roundtable discussions. I am going to try and push forward some AI initiatives…start small and grow"

Damian Bates
Atlas Copco