Three years is a long time in the world of tool hire. Rewind to 2015 and Speedy Hire, the Liverpool-based supplier of power drills and cherry pickers, was on the ropes.
The discovery of accounting irregularities in its Middle East operations in late 2013 had triggered a downward spiral. Two chief executives were forced out and its biggest shareholder, Toscafund, tried to engineer a merger with its rival HSS.
Amid this storm, Russell Down was promoted from finance director to run the company. Somehow, Speedy succeeded in fending off the merger and retained its chairman, Jan Astrand, who Tosca wanted to replace.
An accountant by training, Down did what he does best: dived into the detail.
He found a business laden with unnecessary costs and