Corporate turnaround is ‘white water’ accounting, says Kowalski
TIM Kowalski, finance director of home shopping, education and healthcare products supplier Findel, describes his turnaround experiences as “white water rafting in a corporate sense”.
The achievements of finance directors will be celebrated at the North West Finance Director of the Year Awards later this year. Entries are now being accepted for the awards.
Mr Kowalski won North West FD of the Year in the over £50m category in 2009 and the Strategic Impact Award at last year’s ceremony for the way he helped turnaround Hyde-based Findel.
When he joined the firm in August 2010 it had £386m of debt and was in the hands of the banks, but he was involved in engineering an £80m stock market fundraising and a five-year refinancing with the banks.
“Funding is always key to restructuring and recovery situations but that might not be every FD’s issue. I prefer sink or swim situations so my experiences might be more extreme,” he says.
“Funding is key to saving a company and allowing it to grow. Then you need an operational turnaround – the right management teams and strategy.”
He adds: “It’s now a very good situation. Everything has stabilised on the funding front. There’s now a secure platform to fund the company and for future growth. What we’re focusing on now is operational turnaround.
“It’s all about turnaround. I don’t join steady state companies, I prefer the challenge. The big thing for me is that I can say in the last three years I have helped save between 2,000 and 5,000 people’s jobs at three different companies. That gets you up in the morning. Here [Findel] 2,500 people depend on you rescuing the company. When you do something like that it gives you quite a buzz.”
The 2012 awards categories are:
• Best FD of a Limited Company (under £50m turnover)
• Best FD of a Limited Company (over £50m turnover)
• Best FD of a Plc
• Young FD of the Year (up to 40 years of age)
• Best FD of a Private Equity-backed Business
• Best FD of a Public Sector Organisation
• Outstanding achievement award
Judging will take place during October and November with the black tie awards dinner on November 28 at The Hilton Hotel, Manchester.
The awards are being supported by Sewell Recruitment, Barclays, Ernst & Young, and Squire Sanders. The BusinessDesk.com is media partner for the awards in the North West and Yorkshire. For further information on the awards, categories and tickets, visit www.fdawards.co.uk.
