You’ve heard about the customer who loved the product so much he bought the company – how about the accountant who loved his client so much he became its boss?

That’s the story of John Talbot, the restructuring expert brought in by Johnson Service Group to save it from potential collapse.

When English National Ballet chairman Talbot arrived at the company in late 2007, it seemed set to breach banking covenants while headlines screamed about the sale of its iconic Johnson Cleaners business and even its potential demise.

But Talbot says he saw the potential of the business despite its short-term financial woes, and decided to stay with Johnson and lead it towards a long-term recovery.

He said: “I got fed up going from one restructuring to another. I fancied staying with a group for a longer period of time. I liked the people at this business and I liked the business.

“There’d been one or two decisions taken that had very bad implications, but I felt we had four very strong market-leading businesses and good people running them.

“That compared to some of the companies I’d been working with in the previous two or three years where they had big financial problems but also major problems in the underlying businesses.”

Talbot spent his career in accountancy working with companies in difficulty. He spent most of his career with Arthur Andersen, specialising in restructuring and insolvency, and was global head of its corporate finance and corporate recovery practice until 1999.

In 2001 he and Chris Hughes launched their own “boutique” turnaround and restructuring practice, Talbot Hughes. Among its most high-profile jobs was handling the £5bn restructuring of former telecoms giant Marconi.

In late 2007, Talbot received the call that would change his career when he was asked to lead the restructuring of Johnson Service Group.

Johnson was originally founded in Ranelagh Street, Liverpool, in 1817 and rose to become one of Merseyside’s biggest companies. It remains most famous for its Prescot-based Johnson Cleaners high street dry-cleaning chain.

But by 2007, problems were becoming apparent – primarily in its Stalbridge Linen Services business.

That September Johnson announced pre-tax losses for the six months to June 30 of £13.8m, compared to a profit of £15.7m the previous year, as the group was forced to write down £15.9m on a failed computer system.

Meanwhile Johnson’s debts were mounting, reaching £168.5m by December 2007, and the company found it was in danger of breaching its banking covenants.

In 2007 Johnson’s share price fell by some 70%. When it issued a profit warning in October, the company’s value fell by a third that day alone.

So in December, Johnson brought in Talbot to restructure the company and handle negotiations with the banks – and later that month, following the departure of chief executive Charles Skinner, Talbot became interim chief executive.

With a typical accountant’s caution, Talbot shies away from saying that Johnson was in danger of collapse, but concedes it was an extremely tough time.

He said: “When you are in danger of breaching covenants it puts you in a position where you have to negotiate with the banks – and they’re in a stronger position.

“If you have a potential covenant breach and you have to go and ask for relief then they assume you are a higher risk and charge you more accordingly.”

JSG reached agreement with its eight banks giving it four months to find a permanent solution to its problems.

The next big step came in April when Johnson confirmed it was selling its East Midlands-based corporatewear arm, which provided uniforms for major retail chains and financial institutions, for £82.5m.

The company also raised £35m from a share placing. Talbot says it was well-received as investors were becoming more confident about Johnson’s prospects.

Johnson’s woes were, said Talbot, “traumatic” for the company and its staff. That was particularly true at Stalbridge. Stalbridge had focused on upmarket laundry work, with its linen used at events including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Henley Regatta and Wimbledon.

“There was a decision taken a few years ago to expand it and do low-margin high-volume work alongside what they were already doing,” said Talbot.

“They managed to increase the turnover of the business, with sales up from £20m to £35m. But they went from £3m profit to about £4m loss.

“Consequently they had to invest in new laundry and stock. There was a programme to put in a computer system alongside that. It ended up with a vast amount of money spent that brought the group to the situation it was in when I joined.”

When Talbot arrived the decision had already been taken to shed Stalbridge’s high-volume work, and that transformation has continued. Last year it made a loss of £800,000 in the first-half, but recovered to an operating loss of £500,000 for the full year. “We effectively made a profit in the second half of 2008,” said Talbot.