Dave Knight Ift Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

BWC provides waste/recycling services, street cleaning, FM services, security services etc to Bristol City Council and commercial customers. £60m+ turnover, c.900 employees. Great to be leading the transformation of this values and service driven business.

SCT is an education services provider in the UK. I was engaged as Interim Turnaround Director to lead turnaround of a failing education services provider, to stabilise its financial position, manage funding requirements and eliminate issues of mismanagement. I am currently maximising financial recovery for key stakeholders by driving legal proceedings to recover monies after gaining approval from the UK government, which is the first case of its kind in the UK.

• Chairman - Taunton Street Pastors• CSMBS • South West Museums, Libraries & Archives Council• South West Film & TV Archive• Royal Mint Museum

Axminster Carpets is a leading manufacturer and retailer of luxury carpets for customers around the world. During this period, I led the business-critical turnaround program of a multi-site manufacturer and retailer, to resolve 10 years of under-performance and financial loss of the company. I turned the loss making business into profit by restructuring the organisation, delivering significant cost reductions and driving operational improvement. I was also instrumental in upgrading the sales split from 85% retail to 50% contract / 50% retail, tripling contract sales and reducing retail accounts by 75%. I succeeded in maximising OTIF from 30% to 98%, reducing lead times by 50%, securing the company’s largest ever contract and embedding a culture focused on performance and open engagement to re-energise the workforce.

Aspace Children’s Furniture is an award-winning children’s beds and furniture company based in the UK. I was engaged to lead the development and implementation of a turnaround plan for the high street and online, multi-site manufacturer and retailer, which was experiencing severe underperformance issues. My remit involved reviewing existing business performance and processes to develop new strategies, resolving complex shareholder disagreements, closing all retail outlets to focus on e-Commerce, and re-launching the brand.Most notably, I achieved ROI of 12:1, attained profit after a previous £1m loss and succeeded in ending cash flow drain. I also reduced breakeven point by 55%, delivered a headcount reduction of 50% and transformed the manufacturing plant from the worst to best supplier by driving operational excellence through improved workforce engagement and open communications. In addition, I secured outsourced supply across Europe and the Far East.

Xennia Technology is a manufacturer of specialty inks used in digital printing. I was engaged as Interim Managing Director, to turnaround performance of a hi-tech, global, multi-site business, improve financial outcomes and enable the company to be successfully divested. This involved working with business leaders and stakeholders to understand issues impacting the business, defining a strategy, and ending a traditional top-down culture to drive team engagementI was instrumental in turning around an EBITDA loss into profit, generating £1m in cash and achieving ROI of 20:1 which eliminated the need for further investor funding. I also re-organised sales operations from 75% hardware to 95% ink / software / solutions, which transformed the company from loss into profitability, and played a key role in securing a £million contract, which was the largest contract in the company’s history, and was instrumental in turning around the company performance. Furthermore, I reduced headcount by 30%, re-engineered processes, reduced development costs and time to market by 50% and reduced staff turnover from 56% to 0%.

The Royal Mint is a government-owned mint that produces coins for the UK and across the world. I was appointed to lead the end-to-end modernisation, transformation and commercialisation of the Commemorative Coins business, that was experiencing financial and operational underperformance. I executed a robust strategy to drive brand reputation across e-commerce and retail channels, whilst also leading international expansion initiatives. Most notably, I significantly increased sales by developing a new strategy focused on enhancing brand reputation and exploiting opportunities including the Olympics (I re-negotiated and secured a high value £multi-million contract with the Olympic Games). I delivered international expansion by globalising the business across 60 countries. In addition, I led business launch into the retail market and grew the e-commerce base to 1.2m customers, whilst also reducing NPD from 12 to 2 months and growing OTIF from 20% to 90%.