Case Studies

Case Study: McGowan Miller Limited, South West Scotland

Douglas Russell has advised McGowan Miller Construction for over 8 years, providing recurring services for accounts, tax returns, payroll and financial planning.

Case Study: Company Voluntary Arrangement

Armstrong Watson were approached by a construction company who had encountered difficulties with their cash flow after having encountered a reduction in turnover coupled with encountering losses on a number of larger contracts. The underlying business was potentially sound however the cash flow difficulties had meant that historic liabilities were starting to become a challenge for the business.

With the assistance of Armstrong Watson, a major review of the company's operations was undertaken, which highlighted several matters:

Case Study: Project House

The directors and shareholders of Project House ran a successful IT related business for many years, during which time they were supported by tax and accounting colleagues at Armstrong Watson.  Following an approach from a competitor, and with help from Armstrong Watson’s corporate finance specialists, a sale of the business and assets of the company was agreed and completed.  The aim thereafter was to return value to Project House’s shareholders.

Case Study: Section 110

The principle activity of the company was property investment; holding approx. 170 residential, commercial and agricultural properties, mostly located in the North of England, but with additional overseas properties.

The company was originally inherited by five siblings and from the outset these individuals were clear that they wanted the flexibility to manage part of the company independently of one another so as to best meet the requirements of themselves and their respective families. 

Case Study: Project Arthur

Armstrong Watson were contacted by the directors when they became worried that they were likely to encounter cashflow difficulties due to various contracts being delayed. They were concerned that the delay in collecting in cash would have a detrimental impact on their business.

Case Study: Project White

We were introduced to the company by the lender, who provided the company with an invoice finance facility, following concerns arising from an audit carried out by the lender. The audit had identified discrepancies which had resulted in the lender increasing its reserves by c£900k on the facility of £1.5m.

Armstrong Watson were instructed to carry out debtor verification and comment on the overall viability of the business. This was done onsite at the company’s premises.

Case Study: Project Daimler

We were introduced to the business by their funder, who instructed us initially to provide them with some thoughts on the Company’s operations and recommendations for potential improvements. There were concerns around the business’ cash position and liquidity as the directors were asking for additional lending (over and above their normal facility) on an increasingly regular basis.

Case Study: Restructuring of a caravan park business

We have advised a number of parks on how they can benefit from a corporate relief that allows groups of companies, if they meet certain conditions, to dispose of one park through a limited company, and not pay Capital Gain Tax on the corporate disposal.

Case Study: Caravan and Lodge Park – value circa £2 million

We were engaged following the death of one of the owners of the park to deal with an HMRC enquiry into the claim for Business Property Relief (BPR) on the deceased’s estate.  HMRC were suggesting that no claim was available against their share of the park's value, placing around half of the holiday park into the estate, which would have resulted in an increase in the IHT liability of around £400,000.

Case Study: Temporary recruitment agency benefit from a proactive, full service approach

Background

Armstrong Watson’s predecessor firm was appointed auditors, accountants and business advisers to the Primestaff Group over twenty years ago, and they have always found the service they have received to be of the highest quality.

Why they sought to work with us?

Having previously been with a rival accountancy firm, they felt that the previous advisers did not provide great service for the following reasons: