About Us
Established in 2009 by David Brands to provide manufacturing and service businesses with business consultancy and coaching services, from his wide experience and expertise building and running both SME’s and multinationals. We have provided short term crisis support and longer term consultancy to simply improve performance and profit generation.
David started as a graduate electrical engineer in 1982 with GEC (Alstom), and rapidly progressed to become Group Managing Director, in charge of manufacturing and sales units in the UK, North and South America, South Africa, Australia, India and continental Europe. Along the way David benefited from excellent business training, which he honed in many line management roles in engineering, sales, marketing, manufacturing and corporate strategy.
He left Alstom to lead and perform a venture capital backed, management buyout of a niche automotive components company in 2000, and further acquired its much larger competitor in 2006. Following successful integration and performance improvements, this MBO was successfully exited in 2008.
David is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the IET, a Member of the Institute for Turnaround, and carries Professional Indemnity and Public Liability insurance while performing coaching and consulting activities.
Services
Click below to find out more about each of the services that we can procide for you and your business
Business Strategy for Profitable Growth
We will help you:
• Find a good business strategy,
• Implement and achieve it
• Break the longer journey into lots of smaller milestones and successes
• Bring in early benefits, in a virtuous cycle of growth and efficiency.
Often business owners just have an aspiration to do a bit more next year than this year. “Hope” is not enough. Taking a proper strategic look at your business, will allow you to reduce risks, have a higher degree of command over your business environment, and select a strategy which will deliver long term profits and value.
Profitable Growth
All businesses want growth, usually of sales, as the assumption is that profits will follow. This is not always the case. We can help you focus on:
• Real growth, which is achievable and will deliver the resultant profits and goals
• The right areas for growth, and not just the ones that look good on the surface
• Growth through innovation, whether this is technical development or market development
Due Diligence
We can perform detailed operational due diligence investigations of the target
business:
• Current trading activities,
• Customers and market environment
• Manufacturing / service delivery capability
• Management team
• Property situation
• Etc.
When seeking to acquire another company as part of your business strategy,you not have the managerial time or capacity to perform a suitably rigorous DD investigation. You may also have to be wary of over-optimistic internal ssessments, fuelled by over enthusiasm to complete the deal. This operational DD activity augments the financial, forensic due diligence carried out by the acquirer’s financial advisors, as this often misses critical operational factors.
Project
Project Management
We can improve your project management process. Companies expend enormous effort into winning an order. It is therefore heartbreaking to see much of that good work destroyed by subsequent poor management of the project. Good project management can:
• Ensure the tendered margins are achieved
• Enable additional profits from project variations
• Motivate staff who become freed from fire fighting
• Delight customers, who become loyal supporters and great salesmen for your company.
We can indentify if your project handling is less than superb, and help you develop your team to have the necessary skills and tools to deliver the planned profits. See our section on “Project Scope Creep Solution”.
Project Management
We can improve your project management process. Companies expend enormous effort into winning an order. It is therefore heartbreaking to see much of that good work destroyed by subsequent poor management of the project. Good project management can:
• Ensure the tendered margins are achieved
• Enable additional profits from project variations
• Motivate staff who become freed from fire fighting
• Delight customers, who become loyal supporters and great salesmen for your company.
We can indentify if your project handling is less than superb, and help you develop your team to have the necessary skills and tools to deliver the planned profits. See our section on “Project Scope Creep Solution”
Project ‘Scope Creep’ Solution
Project scope ‘creep’ is where costly new requirements emerge during a project, which need to be charged for, and without damaging the relationship with that valuable customer.
We have superb tools which achieve exactly this happy result. We can ensure that the scope definition is extremely clear, and that the project management process is both flexible and robust, to ensure that variations are quickly and clearly identified, and that these are agreed with the customer. This scoping tool is a major element of the improvements we can implement to your overall Project Management processes.
Turnaround
David Brands is a full Member of the Institute for Turnaround, which is the governing body for turnaround professionals. He is also on the panel of several high street banks, as an approved turnaround consultant, where the bank would like a struggling client to get external help to improve performance.
We have extensive first-hand experience supporting clients in crisis and have a successful record of turnaround in both manufacturing and service sectors: including care homes, engineering, manufacturing, automotive, energy and construction.
We will be pleased to discuss the matter with you confidentially and urgently, as we recognise that time is the most valuable commodity in these situations. We can assist the existing management team, or provide interim management until permanent solutions are available.
Case Studies
SME Energy Sector
The £8M company was losing £600k pa and was about to be put into administration by its bank. The major creditor was demanding payment and seeking to recover goods supplied and the largest customer was actively seeking to switch supplier to safeguard its future. Called in by the shareholder and Board at the eleventh hour, David Brands took charge as Acting MD, held immediate talks with all stakeholders including banks, customers, suppliers and employees and agreed a plan. Initially focussing on cash control, after some financial restructuring, and extensive process improvements, the company quickly recovered to full profitability and growth for the original shareholder. (Company name withheld for confidentiality.)
SME Construction Sector
A long established, family owned £12M manufacturer in the construction sector, had been making losses for several years after the 2009 recession. The shareholders could no longer fund the losses and called in David Brands, initially as a consultant and then as Acting MD. Focussing initially on cash control and forecasting, the company was brought into profit within 3 months through a number of process improvements, and posted its first annual profit for six years. See graph. Once recovery was secure, D Brands then exited the business, returning it to the full control of the developed management team and the shareholder. (Company name withheld for confidentiality.)
Care Home Sector
Initially introduced to the small private group of care homes by the client’s Bank, which was very concerned about a deteriorating headroom position, David Brands helped the owners take a fresh look at the costs, operations and marketing. Detailed cash flow forecasts were created to manage the initially tight position. Previously unexploited market sectors were developed, and occupancy levels significantly improved. A loss making home was identified and a disposal arranged after careful consultation with all stakeholders, including staff (no redundancies were required), residents, residents relatives, the local authorities and the bank. The company became cash generative again after just 4 months. A detailed budget was prepared, and this was used to manage and monitor future progress. The owners were very pleased to navigate away from special banking support and back to normal, cash generative trading.
Non-Executive Director
David Brands is available for Non-Executive Director(NED) roles, with or without equity involvement, depending on the circumstances. An NED is not involved with day to day running of the business, but to support and offer guidance to those that are actively involved. An NED has the same statutory duties and liabilities as the executive Directors, so an NED does not come along for a risk-free, paid-for ride. The role is an important one, and one which can benefit many SME’s. A Non-Executive Director should be there to:
• Challenge the goals and strategy of the business
• Participate in developing a good strategy and in setting goals
• Coach and mentor the senior executive(s)
• Ensure the business risks are managed
Testimonials
“David was introduced to us by the bank, and initially we were not happy with what seemed like bank interference and pressure, but we knew they were as worried as we were, as the care sector is in a period of crisis. David quickly gained our confidence and showed that he was our best ally. He quickly obtained some addition bank funding for us, based on a credible recovery plan and detailed cash flow forecasting, and has helped us deliver the plan. We now have occupancies up, loans reducing and cash positions increasing. I recommend anyone who is worried about their business to talk to David.”
“David came into this business at a very difficult and bleak time, and in addition to providing the much needed focus on cash and financial performance, he also managed to enthuse and lift the team’s spirits. The increase in morale, financial performance and communications was very quickly felt and seen. I can safely say that if David hadn’t been brought in, we would not still be here. I cannot divulge the company details online, but I am happy to talk privately to anyone in a similar position to where we were, who is thinking about asking for help from David.”
“Over the last four years, David has via Coppenhall Ltd, provided consultancy services to Acrastyle Ltd. for restructuring, funding, Lean Manufacturing, and Commercial and business processes. Acrastyle have been very fortunate to call on these skills and benefitted from his wide commercial experience and engineering and training skills.”
“David arrived at very short notice, making himself available the day after interview. He immediately set to work helping us with the problems we had, namely a loss of control of our production and buying process and (we were soon to find out) our cash position. I can recommend David as a calm steer in a storm, immediately focussing on the most important issues. He is in early and where necessary digs deep into the detail to tease out the root source of a problem. He was with us only a few months, but received applause from our shop-floor (no mean feat!) as he handed over to our new MD. I am very grateful to David for his help, enjoyed working with him, and have no hesitation in recommending him as a turnaround specialist.”
Peter Woolrich
Exec. Chairman
Acrastyle Ltd
Awards
David Brands of Coppenhall Consulting was delighted to have won two awards in the Institute for Turnarounds’ annual awards in November 2018.
The first was for “SME Turnaround of the Year”, for a Turnaround of a Care Home Group, and pictured here with the owner of the Group and Gareth Williams of Barclays Business Support who introduced David to the care home group and the award was presented by Steve Swayne, Chairman of the IFT. This was a real accolade, especially given that the other nominees were from incredibly strong and capable teams from the big four accountancy firms and other turnaround teams.
This first award was then joined by a second, some 10 minutes later, when it was announced that David was the winner of the “SME Turnaround Professional of the Year” award, for his success in both the above care home project and in another 2018 project involving a manufacturing SME, where he had stepped in as Interim MD to reverse its fortunes and return it to profitable growth.
“Receiving such recognition from the turnaround industry’s crème de la creme, and against such incredibly strong competition, is a truly humbling and delightful experience.”
Contact Us
If you would like more information or to find out how we can help your business then we’d love to hear from you.
Ryecroft Coppenhall, Near Stafford
Staffordshire, ST18 9BW
Tel: +44 (0)1785 257877
