Back in the saddle

Peter Backhouse returned to Fraikin last year after a seven-year absence. He talks to Steve Hobson about his plans for getting the business to reach its full potential

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Returning to Fraikin gives Backhouse the opportunity to finish the job he set out to do

Peter Backhouse was UK CEO of Fraikin from 2010 to 2015, when he stood down to spend more time with his chronically ill wife.

“I left Fraikin in 2015 for some very personal reasons,” says Backhouse. “During that time, I kept contact with the industry; it’s one of those industries that you never get away from. It’s always there and in your blood.”

After his wife passed away it wasn’t a hard decision for Backhouse to return.

“I’d been doing some consultancy work with Fraikin for about six months before,” he says. “I’d been helping with some financial structuring for the UK business.

“Darren Hall, who was then managing director, rang me and said ‘Look, I’ve had another opportunity, to go to South Africa, and it’s one of those lifetime opportunities I can’t say no to. Have a serious think about whether you might want to come back to Fraikin because I know that at group level they’d really love to have you back’.

As well as continuity the UK business was also in need of some drastic action, as it had plunged to a £6.4m pretax loss on turnover of £67.2m in the year to 31 December 2022.

“Since I left, Fraikin has had quite a torrid time, not just in the UK but at group level as well,” says Backhouse. “The business has suffered a lot from lack of continuity. We’ve had chief executive churn, group and UK CFO churn and a lot of staff churn, and all of that means that the consistency of strategy just hasn’t been there.

CLEAR VISION: Backhouse believes a lack of clarity wthin the business is partly to blame for Fraikin’s recent financial straits

“When I left Fraikin, I had to leave because of circumstances beyond my control and I never felt that I finished the job that I set out to do here. I had no plan to leave Fraikin and coming back allowed me to step back in and give some continuity.”

“One of the things that I’ve come back and seen is that lack of clarity. What are we doing? Where are we going? How are we doing it? What are the enablers for us to do it?

“The industry is also morphing into something very different. The competitive landscape has changed,