Back in the Black
Through the application of industry best practices and diligent leadership coaching, Ascent created new standard operating procedures and guided leadership changes to propel SunGrid Solutions back into profitability.
Ascent Consulting specializes in construction and service companies, positioning us as the leading experts for private equity investments in the sector. We provide comprehensive services designed to enhance value throughout the investment lifecycle: Pre- Acquisition Due Diligence, Post Acquisition Assessment, and Growth/Scale stages.
SunGrid Solutions is a portfolio company of Hull Street Energy, a leading private equity firm in the energy industry. After purchasing SunGrid, Hull Street partnered with Ascent to identify opportunities to improve SunGrid's operational efficiency and accelerate their path to becoming a profitable investment.
“Thanks to you and your team for all the efforts on this engagement. You all have certainly helped our team to turn the ship around.”
— David Meeker, Hull Street Energy
Location: Houston, TX
SunGrid Solutions is a multi-faceted company providing engineering, procurement, integration, and construction services (EPiC) with a focus on battery energy storage solutions. SunGrid is headquartered in Houston, and also has international locations across Ontario, Canada.
Operations Overview
SunGrid’s primary focus is providing and facilitating renewable energy storage solutions through the use of lithium-ion battery applications. Their main clientele include energy and utility providers across the U.S. and Canada.
Operational Design
In our overhaul of a client's Operational Design, Ascent performs a thorough investigation of the business, operational structure, and finances. Then, we develop and implement standardized processes, procedures, workflows, and protocols (along with a few industry best practices) across the organization.
Entering a New Era
Originally founded in 2011, SunGrid was purchased in 2022 by Hull Street Energy. This came with sudden changes for SunGrid, whose employees were struggling with underdeveloped procedures to ensure projects were being completed efficiently. The acquisition led to turnover in many of SunGrid’s top leadership positions. Therefore, lack of consistent leadership also became a concern for Hull Street and SunGrid’s remaining team members. Naturally, Hull Street was eager to turn SunGrid around and make them a profitable company once again. To determine the best plan of action, they hired Ascent Consulting!
In August 2023, our team of construction experts worked with SunGrid to produce an Operational Assessment of the company’s multi-national business model and operations. After receiving this comprehensive review of SunGrid’s operations, Hull Street hired Ascent again to put our suggestions and advice into action. The goal was to facilitate a corporate turnaround for SunGrid by revamping their operational design and supporting their search for new company leadership.
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Starting with a Strong Foundation
Building from the foundation established during our Operational Assessment, Ascent helped to develop a plan to launch new baseline processes which would push SunGrid in the right direction until a new leadership team was established. Our team led regular on-site meetings to create and document those new processes, which mainly centered around redesigning SunGrid’s estimating and pre-construction procedures.
Ascent also guided and supported SunGrid’s efforts to hire the new company executives who would continue to lead the turnaround. In October 2023, SunGrid hired its new CEO, Joseph Snodgrass. Once SunGrid’s CEO and other new executives were in place, Ascent’s role shifted to supporting their efforts to continue the newly established processes driving change.
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A New & Improved Operational Design
Ascent’s partnership with Hull Street successfully led to new and improved operational efficiency, which helped to grow SunGrid's profit margins and quickly improved Hull Street's Return on Investment.
One of the outcomes of these efforts was the development of a Front End Loaded (FEL) process design to plan and ensure success in a project’s early stages. This method, common for many engineering and design firms, was just one example of best practices Ascent’s team brought to drive change. Our team also helped to oversee SunGrid’s successful leadership transition, as C-suite level employees were onboarded and trained in the newly established practices.
SunGrid’s new leadership team was so confident in the new tools and best practices that they were able to take the lead much earlier than expected. Their team’s willingness to embrace challenges and new ideas was a key factor in how quickly they adapted to the new procedures and processes.
The Hull Street ownership group was also impressed. Ascent had successfully contributed new ideas and best practices to help transform SunGrid back into a profitable company with a promising future ahead.
"I haven’t had someone to bounce things off of, talk through things with, or learn from in this way before. I’m so happy that I’ve been able to make such progress with your help."
Emma Bruce
Director, Project Planning and Estimating
Meet the team on this project:
Kevin Juliano
Lead Consultant
Nazia Hasnain
Project Coordinator
Transform your business with Ascent Consulting!
Operational Assessment
Our expert construction consultants and construction business consultants have helped dozens of construction companies to improve performance and profits.
We've developed a proprietary Comprehensive Operational Assessment based on our first-hand experience working with growing Construction Companies.
In the Operational Assessment, we’ll work through a structured discovery project where, together, we’ll uncover what’s working well, what your organization struggles with, and what may be needed to grow.
Learn more about Ascent's comprehensive Operational Assessment & more operational services >
Operational Design
Profitability is directly related to repeatability: getting everyone in the organization to operate the same way.
When everyone is aligned and operating in unison, then it becomes easier to add people (superintendents, project managers, estimators, accountants, administrators) and achieve consistent and repeatable results.
By getting everyone aligned and operating from the same model of processes and systems, the business becomes more efficient and easier for owners to manage.