CASE STUDY – AAH Intergen Berkeley

Moving A Loss-Making CPG With High Closure Cost Risk To Profitable Trade Sale

OVERVIEW

Intergen Berkeley, a $25M contract manufacturer in the personal care sector, collapsed into a sudden $2M monthly loss just before fiscal year-end. A business once considered stable within the AAH Group, was now in freefall. Commercial missteps, unprofitable contracts, and poor cross-functional visibility had crippled operations. A shutdown was imminent.

Trigger for Intervention: A $2M in-month loss exposed financial distortion, commercial chaos, and created a potential $10M closure cost the Group could not afford.

THE CHALLENGE

The operation’s structural weaknesses, long masked by poor controls, surfaced in one catastrophic moment.

Revenue distortion concealed collapse. Sales were recorded pre-shipment, inflating results and hiding eroding margins.
Fixed costs spiralled. Operating overheads exceeded $25K per day, while daily contribution remained insufficient.
Contracts damaged margin. High-volume deals, including Sally Hansen/NML, looked attractive but delivered significant loss.
Departments acted in silos. Sales underquoted, procurement overbought, and operations ran without coordination.
Leadership had lost control. No reliable data, no joined-up thinking, and no accountability across the site or Group.

THE APPROACH

Gary Newbury, previously known to the AAH group, was appointed Interim COO with full operational, financial, and commercial authority to recover the business and create a viable path to exit. Gary focused on restoring grip fast — avoiding closure, preserving business unit credibility, and regaining control from the ground up.

Reset cost expectations. Breakeven and throughput analysis exposed structural losses, alongside confirming $10M closure costs to make an informed strategic decision.
Reconnected the team. Daily stand-ups cut through shopfloor fear and helped restore belief and operational truth.
Reordered production logic. Batch sequencing was flipped to minimise cleaning downtime and line resets.
Installed real-time controls. Premix tracking and staging protocols reinstated process flow and pre-mix material visibility.
Built confidence at the top. A transparent week-by-week recovery plan was executed and reported to Group executives.

THE SOLUTION

Once stability was regained, Gary installed reforms to improve visibility, restore confidence, and enable a clean exit.

Daily P&L visibility. Real-time dashboards allowed teams to link activities to cost and profit.
SKU and layout changes. Over $1M saved by eliminating underperforming lines and making overlooked modifications to the facility.
Inventory reduced by $500K. Fulfilment performance improved from 75% to 97% in under three months.
Union-backed shift redesign. A new single-shift model and changes in production planning methodologies lifted line efficiency from 70% to 95%.
Procurement overhaul. Demand-led planning replaced reactive ordering, restoring financial discipline.

Cutting contracts was simple. Standing in front of leadership and confronting their accounting illusion? That took grit.

THE OUTCOMES

The recovery was fast, real, and ready for handoff — turning collapse into clean value.

Back to profit in 5 months. The turnaround and cleanse was completed before buyer diligence began.
Service levels surged. Fill rates increased by 20 percentage points, reaching above 95%.
$10M closure avoided. No layoffs, no asset write-offs, and no wind-down liabilities.
Full-value trade sale achieved. The business was sold at book value with no discount or remediation required.
Reputation restored. Stock was cleared, controls reinstated, and Group confidence re-established.

WHY IT MATTERS

This wasn’t theory. It was operational rescue delivered under fire.

A $2M loss cracked the surface. What appeared profitable had been built on flawed assumptions.
Old habits couldn’t respond. The operating model broke down the moment pressure was applied.
The turnaround left no scars. Profit returned, morale lifted, and the business was sold intact without needing outside capital.

CLIENT TESTIMONIAL

“Gary brought a rare mix of precision and urgency to the table. Within weeks, we had clarity. Within months, we had a turnaround. His ability to rally the team, uncover what really mattered, and lead the execution at pace was extraordinary. The business didn’t just recover. It gained value before we moved it on.”
— Gary Greenhalgh, Board Director, AAH Holdings plc