The waiting is over. After much debate and deliberation, Private Equity International is proud to unveil the 12 winners of the 2015 Operational Excellence Awards.
After two months of processing submissions and multiple phone calls with judges who have pored over every nuance and detail, our panel of 11 industry experts has picked the 12 value creation stories they believe have best exemplified true operational excellence.
The calibre of the 2015 entries in all 12 categories and across all three geographies, was extremely high. As Suvir Varma, a partner in Bain & Company’s South East Asia practise and a judge in the Asia-Pacific region commented: “Last year there were some slam-dunk winners but this time, in most categories, there were really hard decisions to be made.”
For EMEA judge Antoon Schneider, who leads Boston Consulting Group’s private equity group in London, what made many of the entries particularly impressive was that the portfolio companies had been held throughout the global financial crisis.
He added: “I was looking for portfolio companies that were sailing against the headwinds or were able to perform better than market conditions.”
We would like to extend our thanks to everyone who submitted entries as we appreciate getting the disparate strands of your operational excellence story together takes time and energy. And if you didn’t win, please don’t be put off trying again next year! We enjoy reading all of your operational excellence stories as after all, they are at the heart of all that is good about this asset class.
Finally, congratulations to all our winners, and a special mention to Sun Capital Partners and Sun European Partners who managed to scoop two awards.
PEI Operational Excellence Awards Winners 2015
AMERICAS
SMALL CAP
Blue Point Capital Partners – for traffic control services provider Area Wide Protective
LOWER MID-MARKET
Sun Capital Partners – for body armour manufacturer Point Blank
UPPER MID-MARKET
Gryphon Investors – for healthy snack food manufacturer Flagstone Foods
LARGE CAP
Oak Hill Capital Partners – for restaurant chain Dave & Buster’s Entertainment
ASIA-PACIFIC
SMALL CAP
Mekong Capital – for restaurant group Golden Gate
LOWER MID-MARKET
Headland Capital Partners – for toy manufacturer Young Toys
UPPER MID-MARKET
Tokio Marine Capital – for contract drug manufacturer Bushu Pharmaceuticals
LARGE CAP
CVC Capital Partners –for telecommunications firm HKBN
EMEA
SMALL CAP
Aurelius – for information and technology group Connectis
LOWER MID-MARKET
OpCapita – for games retailer GAME Digital
UPPER MID-MARKET
Sun European Partners – for underwear brand manufacturer DBApparel
LARGE CAP
Nordic Capital – for sports and outdoor equipment retailer Thule Group
If you do not receive this within five minutes, please try to sign in again. If the problem persists, please email: 
