Turnaround Consulting: Commercial Printer

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Client

Commercial Printing

A commercial printing company engaged BlueWater Partners Turnaround Consulting to help improve its cash flow and strengthen its balance sheet. In just 8 months, we met our goals. Moreover, the company’s senior lender returned the relationship to commercial banking from special assets.

Problem

  • Net loss in 5 of the last 6 years and 22 of the last 23 months
  • Lost significant shareholder equity during the same period
  • Negative sales trend
  • Senior lender moving relationship to Special Assets Group

Solution

  • Sell non-performing assets to raise cash and pay down debt
  • Reduce breakeven through targeted cost cutting, including permanent workforce reductions (one-third)
  • Use temporary workers to manage variability of business
  • Change board of directors’ role and hire a general manager
  • Develop daily flash report and weekly scorecard including key sales and operations metrics

To ensure a positive return on investment and help our client’s cash flow, we proposed a small retainer plus a success fee based on profitability.

Results

  • Achieved profitability within the first month of engagement
  • Liquidated a non-core business unit and sold under-utilized real estate
  • Reduced breakeven by 29%
  • Turned over day-to-day operations to new general manager
  • Negotiated new line of credit and covenants
  • Reduced external quality incidents to only one per month from 2-3 per week
  • Improved delivery times to less than 5 days from 2-3 weeks