Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today:

• Your ultimate guide to franchising
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• They bought dozens of businesses and returned 1,000x to their shareholders
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🔑 How to Franchise the Right Way

If you're reading this newsletter, you either own a business (maybe several), or you want to own one.

And you've probably considered franchising at some point.

Franchising can be wonderful. It can also be a disaster.

Connor Groce has seen both outcomes up close, and lived to tell about it.

​Join us on Tuesday April 21st at 12 ET for a strategic look at the intersection of franchising and acquisition entrepreneurship. In this webinar, we will cover:

• The pros and cons of franchising
• Single-brand roll-ups vs. multi-brand portfolios
• Franchise acquisitions: sourcing, diligence, and integration
• Raising capital in franchising
• The franchise opportunities that make the most sense in 2026

Connor has owned and operated franchise units in multiple systems. He has grown his own portfolio through successful acquisitions and is one of the leading voices at the intersection of ETA and Franchising.

He also publishes a weekly newsletter called "Franchise Gateway" and serves as the franchising contributor for Acquiring Minds (one of my favorite podcasts)

If there's anyone you're going to learn the franchise business from, it needs to be Connor.

​Register for the Webinar​

🔑 Britain’s Acquisition Machine

While American corporate raiders grabbed headlines in the 1980s, a quiet British duo quietly built one of the most profitable and disciplined conglomerates in the world.

James Hanson and Gordon White transformed a public shell company into an empire.

Here's the simple but ruthless formula they used:

• Identify undervalued targets
• Launch hostile bids when necessary
• Slash costs
• Sell off non-core assets fast
• Repeat with the next target

Their creation, Hanson Trust (later Hanson PLC), became a template for the “buy, improve, sell” model in the United Kingdom.

Origins and Early Momentum

In 1964 James Hanson and Gordon White, two family friends with backgrounds in transport and trading, took control of the Wiles Group.

It was a small, publicly-listed company involved in fertilizers and printing.

They renamed it Hanson Trust in 1969 and began a steady series of small acquisitions.

By the end of 1973 the group owned twenty-four companies with combined sales of $120 million.

Unlike many aggressive corporate raiders, Hanson and White kept a deliberately low public profile and focused on industrial and consumer businesses trading at depressed valuations.

In fact, it was nearly impossible to find any public photos of the two together. Quite the contrast to some famous businessmen who have hundreds of articles written about them.

The Hostile Takeover Breakthroughs

The real acceleration came in the early 1980s when Hanson Trust began launching high-profile hostile bids.

These deals showcased their willingness to fight management and win shareholder support with cash offers at a premium.

Key deals include:

• 1982: Acquired Berec Group (maker of Ever Ready batteries) for £95 million.
• 1983: Took United Drapery Stores for £250 million.
• 1984: Won London Brick Company, Britain’s largest brick maker, in a fiercely contested hostile battle for £247 million.
• The deal made Hanson the world’s largest brick manufacturer.
• 1984: Expanded to the United States with the purchase of U.S. Industries for $535 million.

Their dealmaking pace quickened in 1986.

Hanson launched a hostile bid for SCM Corporation in the United States and completed it for approximately $930 million.

That same year they acquired the much larger Imperial Group in the United Kingdom for £2.5 billion after defeating a rival approach from United Biscuits. In 1987 it added Kidde Inc. in another major U.S. deal valued at roughly $1.7 billion.

The “Buy, Improve, Sell” Playbook

What set Hanson apart was not just winning deals but what happened immediately afterward.

The team applied a strict discipline:

• Central headquarters remained tiny
• Operating managers were given tight financial targets
• Overhead costs of all businesses were cut aggressively.
• Non-core divisions were identified and sold quickly, often recovering most or all of the purchase price.

The Imperial Group acquisition was the textbook case.

Hanson paid £2.5 billion but recouped nearly the entire amount by selling off Courage Brewery, the off-license chains, Golden Wonder crisps, hotels, restaurants, and food businesses.

It retained only the profitable tobacco operations (Embassy, Lambert & Butler, John Player Special).

The same pattern repeated across dozens of deals: buy cheap, strip away distractions, sharpen the core businesses, and generate strong cash returns for shareholders.

Legacy

By the mid-1990s Hanson PLC ranked among the largest companies in the United Kingdom and had a significant presence on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1996 the group demerged into four separate listed companies: Imperial Tobacco, The Energy Group, Millennium Chemicals, and a continuing Hanson PLC focused on building materials.

James Hanson (by then Lord Hanson) and Gordon White (Lord White of Hull) had created extraordinary shareholder value over three decades; Hanson Trust’s share price multiplied more than 1,000 times from its founding.

Lessons for Business Buyers

• Hostile takeovers can succeed when the price is right and the bidder stays disciplined. Shareholder value, not management loyalty, ultimately decides the outcome
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• Second, the real money often comes after the deal closes. Ruthless cost control and rapid divestiture of non-core assets can turn a seemingly expensive purchase into a bargain.
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• Third, simplicity beats complexity. Hanson kept headquarters lean and gave clear financial targets to operating managers rather than trying to micromanage every business.

Sieva

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Disclaimer: nothing here is investment advice. Please do your own research. The information above is just for information and learning.

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