Tony HeywoodBusiness Turnaround/Transformation

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The Turnaround of a Fashion Company Threatened with ReceivershipCase Study

The Turnaround of a Fashion Company Threatened with Receivership

Tony Heywood

As with all Fashion, time is critical and it was important to ‘hit the ground running’ with a strategy acceptable to all parties. Unless a credible plan was implemented within days the debenture holder would step in and appoint Receivers.

Client:

Tony has an excellent analytical and creative mind leading to innovative solutions to the challenges faced in the business. It was a pleasure to work with him and am pleased to recommend him.

Main challenges: Financial discipline out of control, main funders threatening Receivership, management not working together and lack of finance to complete orders from major fashion retailers.

Overcoming the challenges:Instigated strict financial controls, worked with management to put in a workable business plan, arranged 3rd party stock finance and agreed a realistic paydown period acceptable to the debenture holders.

What value was your role to them:Being independent allowed me to gain trust from all parties, motivating the management team to pull together with a single vision and impartially brokering funding to complete orders and meet the requirements of the forward plan.

The Turnaround of a Fashion Company Threatened with Receivership

Profile: Tony HeywoodTony Heywood is an entrepreneurial retail and wholesale CEO with 35 years experience of start-ups, e-commerce, business turnaround and recovery. He has worked with Banks, Private Equity/Venture Capital, Insolvency Practitioners and SMEs in the Fashion, FMCG and Leisure sectors.

Whilst his prime expertise is in retail operations having successfully started, developed and sold 3 retail businesses, Tony also has a broad knowledge of all aspects of commerce - from manufacturing to sales, marketing to e-commerce, HR to logistics, legal and accounting to compliance and health and safety. Tony has also been involved in several turnaround situations, successfully guiding SMEs through troubled times. He is a panel member of Royal Bank of Scotland Turnaround Panel, BRITE (Begbies Traynor Group Restructuring Independent Turnaround Executives) and a member of the Turnaround Management Association.

Since joining NXD, Tony enjoys spending his time passing on his experience through non-executive roles where he can be a mentor, advisor, sounding board or just a Dragon to play Devil’s advocate

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