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In the words of one mergers and acquisition expert, Uniq boss Geoff Eaton has done "remarkably well" to salvage something of value from the chilled foods firm, given the problems he inherited as md.

The most pressing and stressful of these was Uniq's £400m-plus pensions deficit. Eaton and his management team finally dealt with the problem this spring via a wholly novel arrangement, which City insiders dubbed a 'pension deficit for equity' deal.

This saw Uniq shareholders surrender 90.2% of the company's value, while the pension fund released it from its pensions liability in return. The company subsequently floated on the Alternative Investment Market. Uniq's board then announced that the pension fund was seeking to sell its stake in the company.

When asked how relieved he was to have sorted out the pension issue, Eaton paid tribute to his senior team and said: "It's huge, I've been working on this for the last six years, restructuring Uniq and dealing with issues from the Unigate days. It was a big challenge."