Director
Rachel Littlewood
Phone
07950 698860Specialisms:
- M&A/Special Situations
- Driving Sustainable Debt Resolution
- Commercial Strategy
- Financial Optimisation
Rachel leads our operational and financial turnaround engagements, working closely with clients to solve complex operational challenges while maximising both commercial performance and customer outcomes. She combines a strategic focus with a deep understanding of customer needs, ensuring that each solution is tailored to drive sustainable growth.
Rachel excels in identifying and addressing critical issues related to revenue and margin leakage, debt management, and operating costs. By deploying targeted solutions, she helps clients unlock significant improvements in financial performance. Her approach is particularly focused on ensuring that debt resolution strategies not only alleviate short-term pressures but also foster long-term customer financial resilience. Rachel is passionate about ensuring customers in debt receive the right support at the right time, and her focus on fostering open communication and delivering tailored solutions results in fair outcomes for both businesses and customers.
In addition to driving financial optimisation, Rachel brings extensive expertise in M&A transactions, where she plays a pivotal role in providing financial insights and ensuring that both commercial and customer outcomes are aligned. Whether through due diligence or post-transaction integration, her approach ensures that each deal is structured to support sustainable business and customer success.
Before joining BFY, Rachel spent over 13 years in finance, commercial, and operations roles within the energy industry. Most recently, she was Head of Credit Risk and Collections at E.ON, where she led large teams focused on customer resolution, financial sustainability, and improving processes to support customers facing financial difficulty.
Start a conversation with:
Rachel Littlewood
News
Customer Debt Insights

Domestic energy suppliers faced £1.5bn cash coverage deficit in Q4-24
Our latest analysis indicates that domestic suppliers faced a £1.5bn cash coverage deficit at the end of Q4-24. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter in which suppliers have had to finance a shortfall in net balances - a clear departure from historical trends and a stark indication of the ongoing challenges in maintaining capital adequacy.

Why aren't complaints falling faster - even with record-high satisfaction?
Ofgem’s latest data shows a drop in complaints - but the improvement is largely down to one supplier. Across the industry, managing complaints remains a challenge, even as customer satisfaction reached an all-time high earlier this year. With annual complaints costs averaging £5m-£9m, what can suppliers do next?

Energy debt hits £3.85bn, but growth slows to lowest rate since 2022
Domestic energy debt hit a record £3.85bn in Q4 2024, rising by £0.75bn over the past year. Although a seasonal increase from Q3 to Q4 is expected due to winter consumption, the latest rise of £30m was the smallest quarterly jump since 2022, indicating a potential shift in the crisis.
Our Team
Operational Turnaround and Recovery

Jon Vincent
Client Director
Jon helps clients resolve problems with billing, settlements, and customer service.
View Profile
Lauren McCullough
Senior Manager
Lauren leads our clients through Operational Excellence, Lean Transformations and Continuous Improvement activity.
View Profile
Joseph Cooper
Manager
Joseph supports our Retail clients to improve their operational processes and business performance.
View Profile
Ed Breslin
Manager
Ed works with clients to improve their cash flow/revenue delivery, and leading the Commercial/Financial Modelling within our M&A/Transaction Advisory engagements.
View Profile
Holly Odle
Manager
Holly supports clients with large-scale business transformation programmes, delivering significant bottom line improvements through back-office optimisation.
View ProfileCase Studies
Our Results

Identifying ~£50m BDC reduction opportunities for energy retailer
Through our debt maturity assessment, combined with a broader focus on billing and customer contact activity, we identified routes to achieve a ~£50m BDC reduction for an energy retailer. This informed a targeted improvement programme to address capital adequacy challenges, driven by rising debt and BDC.

Cash recovery initiatives deliver ~£275m benefit for large Energy supplier
Our debt team supported a large Energy supplier with recovering their cash position, achieving a total benefit of ~£275m through collaborative initiatives.

£4.5m in Bad Debt benefits for large energy retailer
We helped a large energy retailer to generate immediate in-year debt benefits through tactical interventions. Our programme delivered ~£4.5m in Bad Debt benefit and ~£8.5m in cash collection, all while maintaining customer and productivity measures within the operation.