Andy Telford – Emperor Divers

Speaker: Andy Telford, CEO, Emperor Divers

What would you like to say to your CFO?

Andy Telford: First up, a big thank you to Mike for his patience and efforts over the past three years with the team at Emperor. Personally, I feel it’s made a huge difference to the way we report and forecast our earnings.

What one or two big issues/untapped opportunities were you facing before you started working with us?

Andy Telford: Although Emperor has been in existence for 30 years, the last 10 we’ve expanded into the Maldives and Indonesia and grown somewhat. It was clear we needed to standardise our reporting and accounting procedures across the three destinations and Mike have been really helpful in doing that.

What specifically have been the benefits to your business?

Andy Telford: The main benefit of having Mike on board has been that our reporting is now much more timely and on a group basis. We can therefore look at opportunities and see whether they’ll have a good impact on the business going forward.

What have the benefits been to you personally?

Andy Telford: I’ve always believed that a business needs a great relationship between the CEO and CFO. It’s always been my plan to step aside and allow the management team to take the business forward. So bringing Mike on board has been a great benefit to me personally, because it’s provided me more time and control, so that second string can take the business forward and maybe to an exit at some time.

What are you hoping to achieve over the coming 12-24 months with the support of your FD/CFO?

Andy Telford: Mike’s helped us monitor our cash burn during the pandemic, which has been a great help. Thankfully we’ve survived it. Our plans in 2022 and 23 are to implement building up our cash reserves and kick starting the opportunities we’ve had to park for the last two years. Clearly our reporting procedures are much better today than they were previously, and that will be a great help going forward.