When in-flight entertainment business Inflight Productions Limited was acquired by German listed business Advanced Medien GmbH (since renamed Advanced Inflight Alliance GmbH), the new corporate structure required a substantial change in reporting regimen – including a changed reporting date, IFRS conversion and detailed quarterly compliance for the IFP group – which followed, in rapid succession, the intense activity of the sale process. This drove a short-term requirement for an experienced project team to augment the in-house resources and ensure that IFP were able to deliver on those requirements in a short timeframe.

FD Solutions responded to a call from the company’s Chairman by putting forward a two-man team, consisting of Chris Backhouse and Simon Raperport, to start work alongside the finance team within 24 hours, developing and completing the required reporting package. Having submitted the report on schedule, the FD Solutions team were then available and able to respond to follow up questions from both IFP and the parent company, and provide cover for the IFP finance staff.

Chris Backhouse has continued to support the IFP finance team with subsequent reports over a period of a year, reducing the required level of involvement gradually as the company’s finance team has been strengthened and the reporting process streamlined. Chris also assisted by taking on other one-off tasks, such as the development of the company’s annual budget process.

IFP chairman Douglas Moffitt says “FD Solutions impressed with the expertise they were able to deliver at short notice, with Chris and Simon able to hit the ground running and own the project through to completion on a very tight schedule.”