Liz Claydon

Partner

KPMG in the UK

Liz leads KPMG in the UK’s Consumer Markets (CM) sector. Her current focus is to drive synergies between CM and the broader consumer sectors across Media, Telecommunications, Technology and Leisure, leveraging both her and KPMG’s extensive understanding of FMCG clients and the broad range of issues and opportunities they face. The prolonged economic downturn has meant that many FMCG companies have had to significantly reshape their businesses in recent years to fit the changing market conditions across Europe. Together with the wider team, Liz has helped companies adjust their portfolios and cost base to reflect these changing dynamics. This work has included a sharp focus on working capital and advising clients how to better structure, and in some cases globalize, the company’s back office functions to free up capital to fund investment and growth plans – areas which are fundamental as the global economy shows signs of recovery. Recently Liz has been driving KPMG’s insights in the CM sector, such as through her participation in the Consumer Insights Panel - a quarterly forum for thought leaders with extensive FMCG experience. Liz’s background is in transaction services and she has advised on some of the largest cross border deals of recent years and led domestic transactions. Liz has particular expertise helping clients with divestments, and undertook a one year secondment to Diageo’s M&A department during 2001, where she was responsible for leading the disposals of several non-core drinks brands. More recently she advised a major UK pharmaceutical company on the £1.4bn sale of two of their drink brands to an international consumer company.