Trading administrations are usually won or lost in the first seventy-two hours. The insolvency strategy may take weeks to settle, but the operation cannot wait — staff turn up for shifts, deliveries arrive, customers hold bookings, and the answers given in those first three days determine whether there is still a business worth selling in three weeks. What follows is the operational sequence experienced interim managers work through on appointment.
Hours nought to six: take control of the sites. Establish who holds keys, alarm codes and access to each location, and reduce that list to a known, accountable set. Secure cash on site, count it and record it. Establish physical control of stock, plant, vehicles and any high-value assets, and photograph the position on day one — that record settles a surprising number of later disputes. Where there are multiple sites, appoint a named point of contact at each and give every one of them a single number to call.
Hours nought to twelve: talk to the staff, in person where possible. Nothing destroys an operation faster than silence. People will accept difficult news delivered honestly and will not accept being left to read speculation online. The message needs to be simple and true: who is now in charge operationally, that wages for work done post-appointment will be dealt with properly, when the next update will come, and who to ask in the meantime. Identify the two or three supervisors or duty managers who actually hold the operation together and speak to them individually — if they walk, the rota collapses and labour cost jumps immediately.
Hours twelve to twenty-four: establish the cash position. Build a thirteen-week short-term cash flow, but treat the first two weeks as the live document. Post-appointment income against post-appointment cost, daily where the business is cash-taking. Identify what must be paid to keep trading — utilities, critical supply, agency labour, waste, card acquiring — and what can wait. Get card acquiring and banking arrangements confirmed early; a business that cannot take payment cannot trade regardless of how good the underlying operation is.
Hours twelve to thirty-six: contact critical suppliers. Most will continue on clear post-appointment terms if there is a named, credible person to deal with and certainty about payment. Rank them by whether their absence closes a site within seventy-two hours: utilities, food and beverage, laundry, cleaning, waste, maintenance and any regulated service. Agree terms in writing. Where a supplier refuses, source an alternative immediately rather than hoping the position softens.
Hours twenty-four to forty-eight: verify compliance. Premises and alcohol licences, designated premises supervisor, food safety management records, fire risk assessment, gas and electrical certification, lifting and pressure equipment inspections, insurance validity and any conditions attached to it. A lapse in any of these can force closure and creates exposure for the office holder. Document what is in place and what is missing, and close the gaps in order of risk.
Hours twenty-four to forty-eight: assess the labour model. Understand contracted hours against actual hours worked, agency dependency, overtime patterns and the cost per trading hour by site. In most distressed operations there is meaningful cost sitting in unmanaged rota drift rather than in headcount, and it can be recovered within a fortnight without damaging service.
Hours forty-eight to seventy-two: stabilise the customer position. Confirm which bookings, contracts and orders will be honoured and communicate that clearly. Cancelling everything preserves cash in the short run and destroys goodwill that a buyer would have paid for. Honouring everything without checking the cost can be worse. The judgement needs an operator who understands the margin on each line.
Throughout: build the reporting rhythm the office holder will rely on. A weekly trading pack showing income, cost, headcount, compliance status and issues by site, with variances explained, delivered on the same day each week. This is what turns an operational engagement into evidence the office holder can put in front of creditors, lenders and the court.
By the end of the third day the position should be knowable rather than assumed: sites controlled, staff informed, cash forecast built, critical supply secured, compliance verified, and a reporting cycle running. Whether the eventual route is a going-concern sale, a longer trading period or an orderly wind-down, that foundation makes every subsequent decision better informed and easier to defend.
AJS deploys experienced operational managers into businesses in administration, typically within days of appointment, and works to exactly this sequence from hour one.