It is one thing to spend someone else’s money, it’s something else entirely to spend one’s own.
Famed investor Warren Buffett is said to have coined the phrase “skin in the game” meaning that a company’s executives should have true buy-in to the organisation, with their own funds on the line alongside that of external investors.
The potential to lose, say, one’s house is certainly a motivating factor and I am filled with admiration for those print bosses up and down the country whose skin is well and truly in the print game.
A case in point is Walstead Investments, owner of Wyndeham Group. Walstead’s shareholders are on the line when it comes to the group’s debt (older readers may recall that certain Walstead directors provided £10m in loans when the business took over Wyndeham and bought out its Landsbanki debt back in 2008).
The group then secured further funding from RBS to execute the acquisition of St Ives’ magazine printing ops.
They’ve borrowed a load of money, their own money is on the line too, and that debt has got to be paid down.
How encouraging, then, to see Walstead’s bankers at RBS publicly praising the group’s performance, in what we in the industry know only too well is a very challenging part of the market.
A printing group featuring as a banking case study whereby things are going according to plan, shock!
In the face of rather too many examples where millions of investor pounds have gone down the gurgler, that is no mean feat and should be duly lauded.
