The business, Wirrilla Pty Ltd, is the biggest single exporter of fresh Asparagus to the Japanese market but was so ‘debt wrecked’ that Elders had all but accepted the need to ‘fire-sell’ it for a massive loss. The project proceeded from a thorough capital re-structuring through a market-based strategic management plan to production of credible financial projections which resulted in a sale, over four million dollars in excess of the previously expected price. The writing of this business plan may prove to be a landmark, worldwide, in the field of business planning. The methodology I have developed has wide relevance to a vast number of insolvent enterprises now languishing in the bad-debt portfolios of major lending institutions. If applied more widely, the planning methodolgy has potential to ‘rescue’ and revitalise many operationally viable but ‘debt-wrecked’ businesses.
Elders Rural Finance & Fosters Brewing Limited
