Bridging The Gap

Kerry Pearson, Andrew Little and Iain Nairn of Baldwins Restructuring & Insolvency, talk about the need for early engagement.

As part of Cogital, an international business services group, Baldwins Accountants has 60 offices dealing with thousands of businesses of all shapes and sizes. Andrew, North East Regional Director, together with Kerry and Iain, all of whom are licensed insolvency practitioners, provide advice and guidance to both internal clients and businesses across the North East region; working together with the Value Added Service teams in specialist tax advisory, corporate finance and banking & finance. The team supports businesses with more than just day to day compliance work. With more than 50 years’ of turnaround and formal insolvency experience between them, Kerry, Andrew and Iain deliver strategic advice to distressed companies on a daily basis. If a business has any financial issues, be it bad debts or cash flow constraints, they recommend engagement as early as possible to maximise the options available. Kerry comments that “The most important part of our work is the understanding of a client’s financial situation. The earlier we know about the challenges facing a business, the sooner we can provide support to identify problems and recommend alternative courses of action.” Iain adds, “Insolvency doesn’t always happen when things in the business are bad. It could be because the company has run out of cash when things are going well; even as a result of an external event like Carillion. At times like this, we look at the options and work with our colleagues to bridge the gap in funding.”

“It may be that the situation is much more serious and simply bridging the funding gap is not enough. We work to understand the challenges and this is paramount to a successful resolution” Andrew stresses. Iain continues, “I think of myself as the corporate equivalent of my wife, an Intensive Care Nurse, since at times we seem to have similar roles. Quite simply, the sooner you get into hospital, or in our case in front of our team, the more chance there is of getting your business back on its feet.” The wider Baldwins team is not just there for emergency procedures and can help clients avoid financial problems by working with them at all stages. Andrew advises, “Those who forecast their future trading have a much clearer understanding of their business and set themselves targets to achieve. Working with us gives clients the ability to see what their future looks like, tax strategies can be implemented, potential staffing issues addressed and any funding gaps spotted well in advance of them happening.” Kerry concludes, “In an uncertain world, where problems can arise very quickly, it’s comforting for a client to know that there is high quality, experienced advice available locally; this is only enhanced by our national network.” With offices across the region from Alnwick in the north to Guisborough in the south, Kerry, Andrew, Iain and their team make it easy to access the right advice in the right place at the right time.