Sorrel turns public review data into driver-level intelligence for consumer M&A. We quantify the specific factors shaping customer perception of a business and its competitors, delivered in whichever format fits the decision: dashboards, slide-ready exhibits, executive summaries, or structured data.

The framework is fully calibrated in hospitality (restaurants, pubs, bars, hotels and physical-footprint leisure operators). It applies to any consumer category with public, full-sentence review data at scale, including retail, travel, beauty and CPG. Cross-sector engagements include a one-off framework calibration before the first read.

Public reviews and ratings from the platforms relevant to the category. For hospitality, that includes Google, TripAdvisor, Trustpilot, Booking.com and the app stores. Full-sentence, attributable to a location, and verifiable. No proprietary feed required from the target.

The model is trained on over a million hospitality reviews, with tens of millions of sentences human-annotated against a proprietary, sector-specific language taxonomy. Every output traces back to the underlying sentence, so any figure can be audited in minutes by an analyst.

For a hospitality target where the framework is already calibrated, a same-day read on a target and benchmark is achievable. A full diligence pack with trading-area breakdowns, exhibits and a written summary lands inside two weeks. Adjacent sectors add approximately one to two weeks for framework calibration.

Engagement-based, scaled to scope (target size, competitor set, time window, output format). Dashboards, retainer and data-feed models are available for monitoring and portfolio engagements. We quote per request after a short scoping call rather than publishing a fixed rate card.

Send us a target, a portfolio or a brand. We will come back with a read on what is visible in the public data, a scope recommendation, and pricing. First engagements typically begin with a single diligence or benchmarking read before expanding.

Sorrel works only with publicly-available review data. No client-proprietary or consumer-identifiable information is required. Outputs are delivered through secure channels and each engagement operates under a mutual NDA covering scope, findings and deliverables. Full data-handling documentation is available for procurement review.

Yes, this is the most common use case. We deliver a quantified read on a target's customer-facing performance against a competitive benchmark, covering drivers, themes, trading-area variance and momentum. Outputs are formatted for IC packs and sit alongside traditional CDD workstreams rather than replacing them.

Both. On the buy-side, Sorrel pressure-tests the thesis and surfaces risks that management decks do not mention. On the sell-side, we quantify the competitive edge for the information memorandum and provide defensible evidence for bidder Q&A. Sorrel has supported mandates at both ends of the transaction.

Value creation reads are typically set up on a 6 or 12-month refresh cadence. We track the drivers identified during diligence, measure the impact of specific initiatives (menu changes, service training, pricing moves) and flag emerging issues before they surface in the P&L. Outputs go to the ops partner and the portfolio team.

Yes. For firms with more than one consumer holding, we operate a portfolio dashboard that reads each company against its benchmark on a weekly refresh. Lower per-company cost than the one-off engagement model and designed for portfolio-team visibility and deal-team alerts rather than full-depth analysis.

Customer-perception evidence built into the IM as a quantified exhibit covering competitive position, drivers of preference and momentum. The same read feeds bidder Q&A and the management presentation, so the seller arrives at every stage with defensible data rather than sentiment slides.

Yes. Bring a one-page Sorrel read on the prospect (or the likely buyer set) into the credentials meeting. Founders and sponsors notice when an adviser turns up with evidence on the company they own, not generic comparables. Pattern works across seller and buyer mandates.

Yes. We pressure-test the rationale on a target before mandate sign, then back the buy-side team during diligence with the same driver-level read PE firms use. Particularly useful where the buyer is a strategic and the adviser needs to defend synergy assumptions with consumer evidence.

Same-day reads are achievable for hospitality targets where the framework is already calibrated. Full diligence packs land inside two weeks. We have worked to teaser, IM and bidder Q&A deadlines and can build a delivery schedule against your process plan up front.

Attach a quantified read on the target (or its benchmark) as an exhibit inside the proposal. Evidence at pitch, not promised as a deliverable. Firms using this pattern have won mandates against two established rivals on the same brief.

It compresses the associate-heavy data pull and early hypothesis-generation that typically takes three to four weeks. Partners still set direction, test hypotheses in interviews and shape the recommendation. Sorrel removes the bottleneck on evidence gathering and sharpens the hypotheses that get tested.

Yes, and the pattern works particularly well on commercial diligence and value creation mandates. A single Sorrel read inside a live engagement often surfaces a second or third workstream worth of findings: competitive position work, trading-area analysis or operational-initiative impact tracking.

We operate a consulting-firm retainer model that gives partners on-demand access to reads across active engagements. Used by firms wanting consistent evidence quality across the practice rather than engagement-by-engagement procurement.

Yes. Every reading is attributable to a specific location, so site-level analysis (including trading-area-relative competitive position) is the native unit of analysis. Portfolio-wide views aggregate up from there.

Yes. Initiative tracking is a core use case: set a baseline, define the treatment (menu change, pricing move, service programme, refurbishment) and Sorrel measures the movement in the relevant drivers against the benchmark. Reads typically refresh monthly.

Guest surveys measure intent of the people who filled them in. Sorrel measures the behaviour and opinion of the people who actually showed up and posted, at a scale and granularity surveys cannot match. Best used together: Sorrel reads what is happening across the estate; surveys probe the why on a specific question.