Arcare honoured for reversal in fortune
A WOLVERHAMPTON business has been honoured for its reversal in fortunes at the annual Institute for Turnaround Awards.
Arcare, which owns and operates two hotels, a pub and six care homes providing shelter for 42 residents with learning difficulties, has been restored to financial health with support from Barclays.
In recognition of its revival the firm picked up the award for SME Company Turnaround at the ceremony.
The IFT awards – widely regarded as Europe’s top turnaround awards – recognise companies that have faced financial or operational difficulties over the last few years but have turned around their fortunes due to excellent recovery strategies.
Arcare had suffered as a result of the economic downturn in the leisure sector. The hotels were suffering from cuts to the public sector which saw spending on venues for training and conferences slashed. The pub had been suffering from the impact of the smoking ban for some time and, more recently, the increasing availability of cheap supermarket alcohol. At this time, between 50 and 60 publicans were reportedly calling time on their businesses each month and the care homes were suffering under the weight of high operating costs and low occupancy.
By working with its bank and PwC, Arcare was introduced to turnaround specialist Phil Wilson and together changes were slowly introduced to help ease the financial challenges faced by the business.
These included the introduction of changes to improve basic cash management and cashflow forecasting as well as monthly accounting and business forecasting tools. A considerable amount of time was also spent identifying areas where operational improvements and cost savings could be made.
John Bezzant, the Barclays director who led the work with Arcare, said: “When I first met with the business there was a need to introduce external support to enable financial and operational changes to be made.
“The business achieved this by introducing controlled changes such as improving management information and forecasting so that the issues which needed addressing were clear to see. Maintaining this focus was, and still is, critical to the future success of the business.”
Arcare successfully emerged from Barclays Business Support team in February last year.
The firm said its three-year turnaround would not have been possible without Barclays support.
