Imerco Post Merger Integration

Situation

Imerco is a Danish retailer with focus on homeware with +150 stores and a strong online presence
Imerco acquired Inspiration and wanted to fully integrate it. Management had no prior experience in Post Merger Integration, a very tight “daily operation” and upcoming sales peaks that would freeze all back-end work
How to merge to retail chains without losing momentum or hurting sales and doing it dynamically until competition authorities could approve the deal?

Imago Advisory led the integration process from signing to “all green” working seamlessly with the full management team, where each functional leader was the project leader and owned the continuing business in his/her area – requiring a tailored 1:1 support
Key was for Imerco management to own all workstreams and for Imago Advisory to actively participated in problem solving and planning in all work streams to coordinate, identify dependencies/risks and lead program – and ensure management team had an aggregate plan and focus on key risks and issues
Scope covered rebranding, transition model for webshop, full migration for ERP (inventory, accounting, AP/AR), time and salaries management, IT support as well as creating a detailed training for all shop processes to ensure all worked “Imerco style” in 12 weeks from approval
Overinvest in education and change management – and awareness of same for leaders

Kept motivation – despite 5 replannings due to competition authorities delay
Fully integrated in 12 weeks –so Imerco had a record Christmas sale and Black Friday
Very high employee satisfaction score and buy-in to new strategy