I was drafted in as an Interim GM to a charity that manages the world’s oldest mechanised paper mill with a visitor centre where they provide educational programs. The charity turned out to be £2.6M in debt with the banks chasing them as well as having a CVA to contend with. They were approximately three weeks away from declaring bankruptcy and had less than £500 in the bank with nine employees that needed to get paid.

Find some cash to get people paid, create the opportunity to refinance, negotiate repayment extensions, put off the CVA, put off the bank, optimise the business operations for income, reduce costs…., basically keep the charity afloat.

Looked around for extra funding from various sources such as the council, the county, museum associations and industry associations. Negotiated salary payment extensions with staff. Reduced operational costs (but not staffing) and cutting every activity that cost money and did not bring any in, did a major marketing push to get more visitors/schools, target and prioritise improvement opportunities, negotiated with the banks and the CVA to extend payments and finally reviewed all utility costs for the three sites and six services the charity had.

Reduced costs by more than 25% across the operations, increased visitor income by 15%, achieved a years’ repayment respite with the banks based on a new Business Plan, found and retrieved from six different suppliers £40K cash in overpaid VAT on utility bills. Advised the trustees on a new direction for the charity – focusing on income generation. All of which gave me enough cash and time to turn the business from losing £100K per year to break even and after five years continuing profits.

• Business Change Management & Communication
• Business Optimisation
• Change
• Negotiating

• Organisational Agility & Effectiveness

• Forest, Paper and Packaging
• Manufacturing
• Charities