Peter Harkness (above) and his business partner, Owen Davies, bought Highbury Communications, the North London-based publisher of many well-known newsstand magazines out of administration in 2006. The businesses downfall occurred after it had taken on too much debt – some £26m. This debt was mainly due to some disastrous acquisitions and the overly ambitious launch of new media products.

How Peter Harkness and his partner turned the company around so that it is now making a profit of £1m is an interesting story. The main focus was to get rid of the loss making magazines and concentrate on the “special interest” magazines that have a more loyal subscriber base. Due to the increased profitability of these new titles only 30% of the revenue now comes from advertisers. Profitability was further increased with the setting up of ecommerce websites closely linked to the actual titles.

Another successful entrepreneur, Simon Elliot (above right), saw an opportunity when the company he was interested in collapsed due to a £1m tax bill. Problems that were uncovered included a finance director who had been stealing from the company due to lack of oversight. One of the main attractions of the company were the long term contracts.

Both Elliot and Harkness found their target companies through careful research. Harkness says he ‘used to spend hours and hours downloading files from Companies House’, and Elliot’s successful bid came after two previous potential mergers had fallen by the wayside. Of course another great source of information is the Business Sale Report, where companies that have gone into administration are listed on the site each day.

Stuart Wilde just just saw a business, liked it and just bought it. Stuart was in the middle of a home renovation project when he found out his favourite supplier had gone under. Stuart was relatively wealthy but at 52 he had ‘itchy feet’. He jumped at the chance to buy the company, even though he had no experience in bathrooms or in retail.
‘I did question my sanity for a couple of minutes,’ he says, ‘but I felt there was a good business there, and the main reason it had gone into administration was because the previous owners had spent £750,000 doing up the showroom without thinking about cashflow.’

So what have the entrepreneurs learnt from their experience. A number of key lessons seem to have been learnt.

A more detailed version of this article where readers can gain more insight can be found by subscribing to the Business Sale Report

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