You can't turn a distressed business around by pulling a lever. In this episode I sit down with Steve Benger, who has spent over twenty years turning around and restructuring businesses under pressure, as an adviser, an investor, and from the chair and the non-executive seat. We talk about how he learned the craft across Europe, why the management team rather than the numbers carries the change, what private sector leaders get wrong in public sector turnarounds, and what it really takes to do this work, including the failures.

Key Moments

00:00 - Learning turnaround across Europe: a pan-European restructuring and the lesson that never left him

04:30 - Taking people with you: why the management team, not the trade unions, carries the change

12:00 - The lever that doesn't work: what private sector leaders miss when they move into the NHS

19:00 - What makes change actually stick, and the hidden heroes who sustain it after you leave

30:00 - "High-risk surgery": the administration that stayed with him, and why nobody has a perfect record

38:00 - Three ways a founder business changes hands: retirement, carve-out or distress, and what each really needs

Connect with Steve Benger

Accelerus: https://www.accelerus.net

Steve Benger on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevebenger

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Website: kingsgate.uk.com

Email: podcast@kingsgate.uk.com

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LinkedIn: Steve Swayne

The Value Agenda is Kingsgate's podcast on turnaround, restructuring and value creation.

The financial picture is never the whole picture. In this episode, Oliver Colling sits down with Susan Moor, who leads the transitions practice at FRP Transitions and has spent 15 years placing turnaround professionals into distressed businesses. They talk about how the profession has changed, why the best interventions start with operations not finance, when a team beats a single operator, and what it really takes to do this work at the highest level.

Key Moments

00:00 — How FRP Transitions was built and why it works differently from traditional interim providers

04:00 — How the turnaround profession has changed: from ego and command to empathy and gravitas

11:00 — Situational expertise versus sector knowledge: why asking the basic questions unlocks the real answers

17:00 — When to use a single operator and when to build a team: the CFO, the CRO and the five million pound stock problem

24:00 — What makes a good turnaround professional and why you cannot teach it in a classroom

Connect with Susan Moor
FRP Transitions: frpadvisory.com
LinkedIn: Susan Moor


Connect with Us
Website: kingsgate.uk.com
Email: podcast@kingsgate.uk.com
Newsletter: thevalueagenda.beehiiv.com
LinkedIn : Kingsgate
LinkedIn: Oliver Colling

The Value Agenda is Kingsgate's podcast on turnaround, restructuring and value creation.

Premier League clubs have until the end of the 2025-26 season to phase out gambling shirt sponsors. From summer 2026 they are banned entirely. Some clubs have been generating £20 to £25 million a year from those deals. The replacement market is a buyer's market and every sponsor knows it.

The clubs that treat this as a commercial opportunity rather than a revenue loss will come out ahead. The ones that wait until summer will be negotiating from desperation.

David Paton, Founder and CEO of Kinross Sport, has been inside this problem. He took Blackpool FC from £35,000 to £200,000 in shirt sponsorship in six weeks with no gambling. He turned around Spartan Race UK from a £750,000 annual loss. He ran Peterborough United through an FA Cup run that generated £1 million in additional revenue in a fortnight.

This episode shows you what the opportunity looks like and how to move on it before the window closes.

What this unlocks for you

• A framework for replacing gambling sponsorship with partnerships worth more commercially and reputationally
• Why the commercial opportunity inside a financial crisis in sport is almost always bigger than the problem itself
• The sequence that creates a real turnaround in sport and why most organisations get the order wrong
• How to move fast under pressure without making decisions you regret

About the Guest

David Paton is Founder and CEO of Kinross Sport, a specialist sports advisory business focused on strategic investment, operational excellence and turnaround at C-suite level across football, rugby and events businesses.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpaton1/

Website: kinrosssport.co.uk

Connect with Kingsgate

Website: kingsgate.uk.com

Email: podcast@kingsgate.uk.com

Newsletter: thevalueagenda.beehiiv.com

LinkedIn: Kingsgate | Oliver Colling

YouTube: The Value Agenda

The Value Agenda is Kingsgate's podcast on turnaround, restructuring and value creation.

In this episode of The Value Agenda, Oliver Colling sits down with Milly Camley, Chief Executive of the Institute for Turnaround, to explore what the turnaround profession really looks like today and why so many businesses wait far too long to ask for help.

Drawing on 25 years of IFT history, a membership of the UK's most experienced turnaround practitioners, and a front-row seat to rising distress across every sector, Milly brings an authoritative and energising perspective on early intervention, the end of cheap money, and what modern turnaround actually demands.

Highlights

• What the Institute for Turnaround is and how its accreditation process works
• Why IFT members have been busier in the last 18 months than at any point in the organisation's history
• The single biggest barrier to turnaround engagement and why it has nothing to do with cost
• How to read your cash position and competitive environment before you need external help
• Why the modern turnaround professional needs EQ as much as IQ
• The crossover between turnaround skills and growth business skills
• What risk registers miss — and what everyday risk awareness actually looks like
• Why the era of cheap money is over and what that means for mid-market businesses right now

Connect Visit Kingsgate www.kingsgate.uk.com

Email podcast@kingsgate.uk.com

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Follow on LinkedIn: Kingsgate | Oliver Colling

In this episode of The Value Agenda, Oliver Colling sits down with Kingsgate Chairman Steve Swayne to unpack how distress really develops inside organisations and what experienced operators look for long before insolvency is on the table. Drawing on decades of work across private equity, healthcare, manufacturing and retail, Steve focuses on the practical realities of stabilising a business when pressure is building and time is short.

Highlights

• How turnaround professionals think about the early stages of distress
• Why free cash flow, debt structure and covenants matter more than headline profit
• The three fault lines: people, process and risk inside a stressed organisation
• What it means to change the drumbeat from monthly reporting to daily control
• Why talking to lenders, customers and frontline staff reveals more than internal reports
• How “odd behaviour” and displacement activity show a business is close to the edge
• What leaders can do now to create runway and protect value

Connect
Visit Kingsgate
www.kingsgate.uk.com

Email
podcast@kingsgate.uk.com

Newsletter
thevalueagenda.beehiiv.com

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Kingsgate | Oliver Colling | Steve Swayne

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In the first episode of The Value Agenda, Oliver Colling sits down with Kingsgate Chairman Steve Swayne to talk about what really determines whether a turnaround succeeds.

Steve has spent decades working inside distressed organisations across private equity, healthcare, manufacturing and retail. The conversation focuses on the practical realities of stabilising a business when pressure is building and time is short.

Three themes run through the discussion. The role people play in every turnaround. The importance of confronting reality early. And the way trust with stakeholders often determines how much room a leadership team has to act.

For leaders dealing with difficult situations, the episode offers a straightforward look at what actually helps organisations recover.

Highlights

• How turnaround professionals think about the stages of organisational distress
• Why people often become the decisive factor in recovery
• The importance of confronting difficult realities early
• Rebuilding trust with lenders, customers and employees
• Balancing financial urgency with human leadership
• Why external perspective often helps organisations see clearly
• The emotional pressure leaders face during crisis situations

Connect

Visit Kingsgate
www.kingsgate.uk.com

Email
podcast@kingsgate.uk.com

Newsletter

thevalueagenda.beehiiv.com

Follow on LinkedIn
Kingsgate | Oliver Colling | Steve Swayne

Watch and subscribe on YouTube The Value Agenda