Two roads diverged in a yellow wood ... and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. —Robert Frost

Taking the Road Less Traveled in Private Equity

Consumer Industry Concentration

We’re highly focused on investing and growing companies and brands in the consumer sector, with a strong emphasis on consumer packaged goods. Many of our investments are consumer staples sold through food, drug, mass, wholesale club and other so-called “big box” retailers. We also look at consumer discretionary businesses where we believe we can add value to the existing management teams through our experience. In other words, we do one thing and do it superbly.

Operational Focus

We add value by bringing operating experience and deep involvement in the diligence process and then in the eventual partnership with companies. This focus is evident in the composition of the Yellow Wood team, a mixture of operating executives and investment professionals who both play key roles within our firm. We believe the real value is more often created by building businesses and operating them more efficiently than through complex financial engineering or elaborate management consulting strategies.

Unique Structure

Yellow Wood was created with the goal of reestablishing the alignment of interests among all the stakeholders of our firm. We are true partners with our operating management teams and with our investors who are a small group of highly regarded endowments, foundations, and investment funds. This structure is heavily weighted to an equity orientation where we do well only if all our stakeholders do well. We do not charge our portfolio companies transaction fees or monitoring/management fees, as this simply reduces the returns of the equity investment of all of our stakeholders.