IFT Announces Award Winners

We are proud to announce this year’s winners of our prestigious Annual Awards, celebrating turnaround excellence across a range of companies and sectors.

The IFT Annual Awards, the most prestigious awards to celebrate business turnaround and the UK’s world class turnaround experts, recognises individuals and companies who have made an extraordinary contribution to UK plc and the turnaround profession.

The winners are as follows:

Large Company Turnaround of the Year – SIG Plc, the building supplies distributor, which has returned to robust profitability ahead of schedule, thanks to a transformation that got into the nuts and bolts of the business and in which leadership and employee engagement played a major role.

Mid-market Turnaround of the Year – Archant, the UK’s fourth largest media company. Thanks to a pioneering transformation plan, the key regional press player is on a path to growth.

SME Turnaround of the Year – Camvac Ltd. This manufacturing business specialising in metallising and lamination was an excellent example of a full business turnaround executed in an active manufacturing environment.

Community Impact Turnaround of the Year – Hovertravel picked up this award. Hovertravel provides a critical infrastructure link to access the Isle of Wight and is a company essential to the every-day lives of a community. Thanks to creative actions taken, the financial performance post-recovery now outperforms the pre-distress period.

In the firm categories:

Gateley Legal PLC picked up Legal Adviser of the Year, showing real commitment to championing new tools to provide new options for clients as well as promoting diversity across their workforce.

PwC showcased a variety of case studies that demonstrated true innovation in solutions and an exceptionally strong client focus to win in the category of Turnaround Adviser of the Year.

Rcapital demonstrated consistent activity and commitment in the turnaround community, as evidenced by their effectiveness across a breadth of businesses, making the investor Special Situations Private Equity Provider of the Year.

Investment and Advisory Firm Hilco Capital demonstrated a host of positive outcomes as well as taking a hands-on approach to their work, scooping up the award for Special Situations Debt Provider of the Year.

Bringing together leading independent turnaround directors and the best lenders, investors, advisory and legal firms in turnaround, we are always delighted to celebrate the successes of individuals. With this in mind, our Independent Turnaround Adviser of the Year goes to Nick Alexander.

In the words of our judges, Nick is ‘a standout turnaround director’ – noted for the significant value creation and jobs he has secured in exceptionally challenging circumstances.

Finally, our Rising Star Award went to Peter Brown from FTI Consulting, who demonstrated the impact that the turnaround skillset can bring to wider society and stakeholders, as well as excellence in high profile cases.