The Turnaround Podcast with Fexingo: Distressed Businesses, Restructuring, and Recovery

For decades, the printing industry was written off as a dinosaur doomed by the digital age. Yet one midwestern commercial printer, Anderson Lithograph, not only survived but thrived after a near-death experience in 2018. This episode unpacks how the company pivoted from commodity printing to high-security, variable-data packaging for regulated industries, slashed its debt by 70 percent, and return...

Episode 106 of The Turnaround Podcast explores how a 50-year-old commercial printing company reinvented itself after the paperless office nearly killed it. Lucas and Luna dive into the story of a family-owned print shop in Ohio that pivoted from printing brochures and direct mail to producing high-end packaging for craft breweries and subscription boxes. They discuss the numbers: the company's rev...

Pearson, the 60-year-old textbook giant, was nearly crushed by the shift to digital learning and open educational resources. But after a decade of restructuring, CEO Omar Abbosh has bet the company on AI-powered tutoring and adaptive learning systems. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down how Pearson cut $500 million in costs, pivoted from print to subscriptions, and now generates over 80% of...

Lucas and Luna dig into the story of one regional homebuilder that found a creative path through the toughest land and labor market in decades. While national home sales hit an all-time price high in June 2026, this 60-year-old builder—family-run, mid-sized—was facing extinction. Instead of competing in the brutal public land auctions, it pivoted to acquiring small distressed lots, partnering with...

Office vacancy rates in major U.S. cities hit 22% in mid-2026, and many landlords are handing keys back to lenders. But one 40-year-old real estate firm, Boston Properties, took a different path. Lucas and Luna drill into how a landlord with a portfolio of trophy towers in San Francisco, New York, and Boston navigated the hybrid-work collapse — by slashing rents early, converting floors to lab spa...

In this episode of The Turnaround Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how Giant Manufacturing, the world's largest bicycle maker by revenue, navigated the e-bike revolution that threatened to upend its traditional business model. Founded in 1972 in Taiwan, Giant faced a critical juncture in the late 2010s as e-bikes surged from niche to mainstream. Instead of fighting the trend, CEO Bonnie Tu pushed t...

Lucas and Luna explore how Hasbro, the 40-year-old toy and game giant behind Monopoly and Dungeons & Dragons, navigated the digital gaming revolution and the rise of Roblox and Fortnite. With the S&P 500 near 7,500 and Nasdaq down 1.5% over the past five days, Lucas breaks down Hasbro's strategy of licensing its brands to digital game developers rather than building its own platform, generating ov...

When flash storage upended the data center, one of the oldest names in hard drives faced an existential threat. This episode tells the story of how a 40-year-old company restructured around a radically different technology, retooled its supply chain, and convinced Wall Street it wasn't yesterday's news. We look at the specific moment in 2022 when the CEO decided to kill a profitable product line t...

In Episode 99 of The Turnaround Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how a 60-year-old paper company reinvented itself after decades of declining demand. They focus on a specific case: a family-owned mill in the Midwest that shifted from office paper to specialty packaging for medical supplies, landing a contract with a major hospital network. The hosts discuss the numbers behind the pivot—investment i...

When Toys 'R' Us collapsed in 2017, analysts said the death of big-box toy retail was inevitable. But one chain, PlayWorld, quietly bought up leases, rebuilt supply chains, and is now profitable again in 2026. Lucas and Luna walk through PlayWorld's turnaround: how it shrank from 800 stores to 300, partnered with local schools for in-store events, and used real-time inventory data to compete with...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna look at how a 30-year-old enterprise software company - one that sold on-premise customer relationship management software - managed to survive the shift to cloud computing. They focus on the specific case of a company that bet its future on a hybrid cloud strategy, and how that bet paid off. Along the way, they touch on the broader market environment - the S&P 500...

Episode 96 of The Turnaround Podcast examines how a traditional credit bureau adapted to the rise of real-time, alternative-data scoring. Lucas and Luna dig into the bureau's pivot from batch-processing credit reports to integrating cash-flow data, rental payments, and utility bills—all while facing regulatory scrutiny and competition from fintech start-ups. They discuss the specific technical and...

Episode 95 of The Turnaround Podcast examines Otis Worldwide's transformation from a maintenance-driven elevator company to a data-centric service provider. Lucas and Luna explore how Otis navigated the shift to IoT-enabled predictive maintenance, the challenge of retrofitting 2 million existing units, and the strategic decision to build its own software platform rather than license from Big Tech....

When digital cameras killed film, most photofinishers went bankrupt. But one 60-year-old company, Fujicolor Processing, didn't just survive — it reinvented itself as a medical imaging and industrial materials powerhouse. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down how a business that once developed 35mm film rolls pivoted to making contrast agents for MRIs and protective films for smartphone screen...

In this episode of The Turnaround Podcast, Lucas and Luna examine how a 30-year-old residential solar installer navigated the US tariff war on imported panels and the domestic content push. They break down the company's pivot to US-made modules, the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act's domestic bonus credits, and why the CEO chose to slash gross margin targets to keep installers busy. Specific...

Episode 92 of The Turnaround Podcast explores how a 70-year-old forklift manufacturer, Toyota-owned Toyota Material Handling, survived the rise of autonomous warehouse robots. With the S&P 500 at 7,483 and real GDP growth at 2.1%, the industrial sector is evolving rapidly. We dive into how the company pivoted from selling metal boxes on wheels to offering integrated automation solutions, including...

Lucas and Luna dive into the turnaround of a 70-year-old Japanese shipbuilder that nearly collapsed when the container shipping boom went bust in 2023. By pivoting from mega-container vessels to specialized LNG carriers and leveraging decades of welding expertise, the company clawed its way back from a billion-dollar loss. Lucas breaks down the specific cost-cutting measures, the bet on liquefied...

Episode 90 of The Turnaround Podcast explores how Valpak, the blue envelope coupon company, survived the collapse of print advertising and the rise of digital giants like Groupon. Lucas and Luna walk through Valpak's 2015 near-death moment when revenue dropped 15% in a single year, its pivot to a hybrid digital-print model, and the surprising numbers behind its 2025 EBITDA margin of 18%. They conn...

Episode 89 of The Turnaround Podcast looks at how a mid-sized soda brand navigated the decades-long consumer shift away from sugar. Lucas and Luna break down the specific product reformulation, packaging pivot, and distribution gamble that kept the company independent when rivals were bought up or went under. They tie the story to today's labor market news — as workers pull back from the workforce...

German manufacturing giant Volkswagen is heading for a historic boardroom battle over a sweeping cost-cutting plan. With the company facing pressure from electric vehicle competition, rising Chinese rivals, and a shifting global market, management is proposing tens of billions in savings. But labor unions and the works council are pushing back hard. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the s...

This episode of The Turnaround Podcast looks at how one of the oldest mail-order catalog companies in America reinvented itself after the internet killed its core business. Lucas and Luna examine how the company, founded in 1984, pivoted from printing 10 million catalogs a year to an online-only model, then to a data-driven marketplace. They discuss the key decision in 2016 to shut down the print...

In 2020, Hertz filed for bankruptcy as travel collapsed. Two years later, it emerged with a bold bet on electric vehicles — ordering 100,000 Teslas and 175,000 GM EVs. By 2024, that bet had backfired: repair costs were 30% higher, resale values plunged, and rental demand softened. The company was forced to unwind its EV fleet, take massive write-downs, and restructure its balance sheet again. This...

In this episode of The Turnaround Podcast, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of how a mid-sized laser printer manufacturer, founded in the 1970s, navigated the disruptive shift from proprietary toner cartridges to high-volume, third-party remanufactured cartridges that slashed margins. They trace the company's near-collapse in 2018 when generic toner hit 40% market share, and the counterintuitive...

Lucas and Luna break down the quiet turnaround at Blancpain, the luxury Swiss watchmaker that nearly died in the quartz crisis, was revived by a single visionary in the 1980s, and is now navigating the smartwatch era. They trace how the brand's bet on mechanical complications and a 'no smartwatch' strategy has kept it profitable against Apple and Swatch Group pressures. With the S&P 500 at 7,498 a...

In this episode of The Turnaround Podcast, Lucas and Luna dissect the remarkable survival story of Wüsthof, the 200-year-old German knife manufacturer that faced a sudden existential threat in 2020 when professional chefs boycotted the brand over a pricing dispute. Instead of caving, Wüsthof chose a contrarian bet: double down on direct-to-consumer sales, invest in premium materials, and repositio...