How can retail restructure for its future?

Session Chair: Simon Gray, Head of Business, ICAEW
Simon is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant, who qualified with KPMG in Nottingham. After many years of volunteering, including District Society President, Chair of the Business Committee and Council Member, he joined ICAEW as Head of Business in December 2021. His background is in the recruitment, careers, membership and inward investment sectors. Simon has started and run his own businesses and served as a Non-Executive Director.

Tony Sturge, Director, FRP Advisory
Tony is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant. He joined FRP in July 2020 and has worked in restructuring since 2008 both in England and Australia.

Since joining FRP he has focused on leading FRP’s contingency planning team and expanding the firm’s credentials to assist businesses in optimising outcomes for all stakeholders across a variety of stressed and distressed scenarios. In addition, he has performed independent business reviews, undertaken accelerated mergers and acquisitions processes in conjunction with options reviews and cashflow management.

In addition to this advisory work, Tony also works in formal insolvency processes such as administrations, company voluntary arrangements and liquidations, recently having taken a lead role in The Body Shop administration, where he was based at the head office at Tooley Street dealing with all UK retail and employee matters.

Steve Baluchi, Director, FRP Advisory
Steve joined FRP in 2018 and is a Director in Restructuring Advisory. A qualified Insolvency Practitioner with extensive experience across a broad range of sectors, more recently he has been involved with manufacturing cases and contentious insolvency within the real estate and not-for-profit sectors. This has included managing a trading administration in the manufacturing sector for an extended period, achieving over £9 million of international sales and a sale of the business saving a significant number of jobs. He has also managed an administration in the not-for-profit sector which was subject to a number of long-running contentious issues, where creditor claims totalled over £2.5 million. Steve advises corporate boards, various stakeholders, and individuals on a range of contentious and restructuring matters.

David Harding, Restructuring Partner, Jones Day  

David is a Restructuring Partner at Jones Day who has 25 years’ experience advising companies, directors and officeholders on all aspects of corporate turnaround, financial and operational restructurings, and formal insolvency proceedings. He has advised on some of the largest corporate distressed situations in recent years, including Diebold Nixdorf, GOJO, Flint Group, Comet, Scotch & Soda, Clinton Cards, Byron Hamburgers and The Body Shop International.