Andy Scott is the UK’s self-styled turnaround king

‘I’m not an asset stripper, for me it’s all about people and preservation’, the founder of REL Capital tells Heather Martin

High flier: Scott’s firm is projected to turn over £40m this year (Murray Sanders)

Andy Scott is 6ft 4in, tanned, with dirty-blond hair, blue eyes and a direct gaze. You wouldn’t exactly mistake him for Alan Ritchson, the guy who now embodies Lee Child’s legendary hero Jack Reacher on screen, but the resemblance was definitely there. And like Reacher, Scott is a guy who likes to put things right. If something is broken, he sets about fixing it.

He puts it modestly. “I come from a family of doer-uppers. I still think of myself as a builder from Portsmouth. I just love projects.”

Softly spoken serial entrepreneur Andy Scott is the UK’s self-styled turnaround king, taking firms on the verge of bankruptcy, investing in them, and safeguarding hundreds of jobs. He employs close on 500 people at REL Capital, founded in 2017, and turnover is projected to hit £40m with recovery from Covid and new acquisitions this year. “I’m not an asset stripper,” he hastens to clarify. “For me it’s all about people and preservation.” Scott partners with the management teams of failing companies “to steer them to calmer waters before turning them back to profit”.