UK
Ireland
Chris specialises in corporate advisory, restructuring and turnaround, advising Boards and a range of stakeholders in stressed and distressed situations.
Experience
Chris has over 20 years’ experience of undertaking a wide variety of advisory assignments, accelerated M&A processes, independent business reviews, and being appointed insolvency practitioner (administrator, liquidator) on formal insolvency appointments.
He has worked across a wide range of sectors including financial services, education, not for profit, manufacturing, construction, and retail.
Notable client work and achievements
Appointed as joint administrator of Rowanmoor Personal Pension Limited, an FCA regulated Self-Invested Personal Pension (‘SIPP’) operator/administration business. Having undertaken an accelerated sales process and traded in administration a successful sale of the business to another regulated operator was completed, which maintain services to over 5,000 clients and preserved the jobs of staff.
Project Alfa (an independent school) - undertaking a short notice IBR and options review followed by an accelerated sale and marketing exercise, which resulted in the successful sale of the school’s business and assets to a new overseas proprietor outside of a formal insolvency process. This resulted in the lender recovering its debt in full and then payment in full of all unsecured creditor claims in the subsequent liquidation.
Multiple IBRs and a further ‘levelling up’ exercise for the Arts Council England on applicants to the DCMS Culture Recovery Fund – Repayable Finance (“CRF”), that was part of a £2billion package of financial support for high profile cultural organisations that were financially stable before Covid-19, but were at imminent risk of failure due to impact of the pandemic. This assisted in the provision of CRF loans to the applicants to enable them to transition back to financial sustainability from the effect of Covid-19.
Professional qualifications/memberships
Licensed to act as an Insolvency Practitioner by the ICAEW
Member of R3 - trade association for the UK's insolvency and restructuring professionals
Article
S&W team comment on latest company insolvencies data for construction industry
New data published today by the Insolvency Service shows that there were 367 construction insolvencies in February 2025, the highest they have been since June 2024. This is a 20% increase from January 2025 (306) and 3% increase from February 2024 (355).
Article
The team complete a sale of Utopia Distribution Services Limited to DP World Logistics UK Limited
On 13 December 2024, Mark Supperstone and Ben Woodthorpe were appointed as joint administrators to Utopia Distribution Services Limited (UDS or the ‘Company’), a physical entertainment distributor. Immediately following the appointment, a sale of the business and assets was completed to DP World Logistics UK Limited (‘DP World’), the supply chain solutions provider.
