TONY GROOM CTP
Battle-hardened restructuring strategist
London Office
Help for your business
Tony has been a turnaround professional for twenty years implementing the financial and strategic restructuring of SME businesses to improve cash flow, organise the business for profits and lay foundations for growth. Tony brings an understanding of business as a director and shareholder of the many business turnarounds in which he has invested.
Tony’s expertise is in helping directors and shareholders resolve their company’s immediate financial problems while at the same time developing a strategy for future growth; he sees the big picture but also deals with the minutiae. He has considerable experience of saving business that other advisers think are too far gone, such as those with winding up petitions or where the bank has called in a loan. Tony also specialises in resolving union-led industrial negotiations when a company’s survival is threatened by employee action.
Track record
Tony has a wide range of experience ranging from acting as CEO and CRO (Chief Restructuring Officer) of AIM listed companies including the turnaround of a regulated investment company; through to smaller SMEs with turnovers of below £1m on his appointment, such as Coffee Nation (now rebranded Costa Express).
He has worked across a wide variety of sectors including:
- Construction and building products – from an architect’s practice to an Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) manufacturer
- Tech companies - including an international security software company where monthly losses of £150k were reversed
- Services businesses – from commercial vehicle parts distribution to a global brand design and marketing services group
- Wholesale and retail – adviser to a number of wholesale and retail businesses including fund raising for a £3m turnover furniture business as part of a restructuring via a successful Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA).
- Printing – led the restructuring of several printing companies including arranging an exit via sale of an £8m turnover group
- Industrial manufacturing – including the rescue of a £2m turnover engineering fabricator
Tony also acts as director and trustee of a number of organisations including a company set up to administer the trail income following his restructuring of a group of regulated investment advisers.
Other
After serving as a Captain in the British Army, Tony went to London Business School in 1989. Tony chairs and presents at a number of annual restructuring, turnaround and asset management conferences in the UK and Europe and has lectured extensively over the past 15 years on corporate recovery to lawyers, accountants and at several business schools.
He is also director and past President of the Turnaround Management Association UK. He is also a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP) and member of the European Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals (EACTP).
Tony’s expertise is recognised by his peers who voted him ‘Turnaround Practitioner of the Year’ at the UK Insolvency & Rescue Awards 2009.