Services & Solutions
Brand Growth/Diversification

Taking Brands to New Growth Levels

Mature brands have few places to go if they cannot extend sideways into new product adjacencies, revenue streams or services and yet the skills and understanding required to do this are not there in for most limited liability corporations in the USA.

In the last few years the focus has started to move within large consumer and retail businesses, to identifying new opportunities for growth. The market is moving from products to services. Few premium branded players can realistically expect to double shareholder value every four years or so through traditional organic growth or acquisition, so they must learn this new game. There is now a new frontier for unlocking brand value and developing new strategic businesses in emerging opportunity areas. This is the exciting but dangerous world of corporate venturing, alliances and trademark or brand diversification.

The best businesses in the world are finding new ways to secure their strategic future and to drive growth – We know how to create the next generation of consumer brands.

Speak to us if you want to know how this approach will help you grow or master new brand futures, new channels and new business systems, or arrange a Strategic Workshop.

James Terry and his wife Frances owned a drugstore in Harriman, Tennessee. In 1989, after 32 years of marriage, the couple divorced. As part of the marital dissolution agreement (MDA), James owned the drugstore solely for life and retained the right to sell the business and keep all proceeds from the sale. However, the MDA provided that if James died prior to selling the drugstore, the store would revert to Frances.

On September 17, 1999, James executed an agreement to sell the drugstore to Revco Discount Drug Centers (Revco). The agreement provided that the purchase price would be determined by a physical inventory on September 23, 1999, and that delivery of the bill of sale and payment of the purchase price would take place no later than seven days following the taking of the inventory.

On the same day he executed the sale agreement, James transferred the drugstore’s telephone number to Revco, as required by the agreement, and sent a letter to the US Drug Enforcement Administration requesting permission to transfer all controlled substances to Revco. He ceased to operate the drugstore on September 22. The following day, only hours before the inventory began, James died.

In October 1999, James’ daughter Elizabeth, who was co-executor of his estate, signed the bill of sale and Revco tendered a check for $218,475. Frances sued, claiming that pursuant to the MDA, she was entitled to all of the drugstore’s assets, including the proceeds of the sale. The estate countered that James had sold the store prior to his death and that the proceeds therefore passed to his estate. Frances contended that no sale was completed before James died.

But a trial court disagreed and held that Frances was not entitled to the proceeds of the sale. The sales agreement was dated and signed five days before James died, and both parties were then bound to the sale. The fact that the sale was not carried into effect until later does not matter. The Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s ruling. Learn more about our workshops here.