Selling an environmental message when you run a major packaging business sounds like a tricky task but it is nothing compared to the problems Peter Atkinson faced when he took over at Macfarlane Group five years ago.

The chances of the firm, founded by Baron Macfarlane of Bearsden, one of the best known figures in Scottish business, being around for its 60th anniversary in 2009 looked slim. Atkinson had joined a business in turmoil.

He says the situation was “nightmarish”. Efforts at turning Macfarlane into a logistics and packaging company had left it with unhappy customers, high levels of debt and perhaps little chance of survival.

Yet last week, Macfarlane reported a doubling of its pre-tax profit for the first half of 2008 to £1m on a six-month turnover in excess of £60m. It has acquired two businesses and is eyeing up another. Its debt — which had touched £35m — is now under £9m.

Atkinson, who previously worked for Procter & Gamble, GKN and Brambles, had specialised in helping firms which were fundamentally good but in a bit of pickle. However, even he was daunted.

“All the businesses except one were losing money. It was worse than I thought with high levels of debt and the classic example of a business in a mess,” he said.

In its packaging division, customer service levels were 60% which meant something went wrong with four out of every ten packages.

“There are customers today who if we knocked on their door would still not do business with us because of how we neglected them back then,” Atkinson admitted candidly. “It is a small group but I understand why they feel like that.”

Atkinson set about taking the business back to basics and as part of that, improving customer service.

“There were positives. We had quite good market positions and the good thing is it is, at its core, a simple business,” he said.

Costs were taken out, the business was scaled down, customer service was improved and by 2005 the company had more or less achieved his aim of breaking even.

Macfarlane’s debt meant that it was monitored by its banks on a monthly basis to determine where it was in its recovery programme. “The banks interrogated us on how we were doing but throughout that period they were very supportive,” he said.

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