Summary: Germany and the UK are moving through parallel restructuring cycles. The work has shifted from analysis to execution, and senior operators are becoming the real centre of gravity across both markets.
The Market Has Turned. Restructuring Is Leading.
AlixPartners reporting 40 percent growth in Germany sets the tone.
FTI-Andersch and Alvarez & Marsal delivering 25–30 percent confirms it.
Roland Berger’s crisis teams are also operating at full stretch.
This is no longer a side business. Restructuring has become the gravitational core of the consulting cycle.
This aligns with insights from Graduate Salaries Are Flat Because Consulting Is Rewiring Itself. When AI compresses routine work, the premium shifts to operators who stabilise, influence and deliver. Restructuring is the clearest example of this shift.
Where the Demand Is Coming From
The client list cuts across Germany’s industrial backbone:
- Automotive tier-ones and suppliers
- Industrials under input-cost pressure
- Media, telco and chemicals
- Aviation and advanced manufacturing
- Energy-sensitive businesses losing margin
This mirrors insights in Consulting Reset: German Case Study: industrial strain, energy-linked volatility and increased use of StaRUG and protective shield processes.
Boards are not asking for strategy. They are asking for intervention.
Cash control. Operational fixes. Credible leadership.
Turnaround firms recruiting from McKinsey and BCG signals a deeper shift: execution is now the differentiator.
Germany and the UK: Different Drivers, Same Outcome
Both markets are moving in the same direction, but for different reasons.
Germany
- Industrial sector strain
- Margin compression from energy exposure
- Structured procedures (StaRUG, Schutzschirm) becoming routine
- High demand for CRO-level stabilisation
UK
- Retail and construction hit earlier
- Faster escalation into administrations and CVAs
- Private equity driving rapid stabilisation work
- Enforcement moves quicker, making distress more visible
The shared reality: companies are not short of strategy. They are short of execution capacity.
This builds on our earlier analysis in A Big Move in German Restructuring Landed This Week, where we highlighted how senior hires and platform shifts in Germany were already signalling a deeper structural reset in the turnaround market.
What This Means for Senior Talent
The market is rotating around senior operators.
- CRO-ready Directors and Principals move fast
- Strategy consultants with operational depth are in short supply
- A&M, Alix and FTI-Andersch are building senior benches at pace
- Delivery ownership now matters more than analytical horsepower
This echoes Graduate Salaries Are Flat Because Consulting Is Rewiring Itself when routine work compresses, judgement becomes the margin engine.
For consultants who can stabilise a business, the next 18 months will create career-defining opportunities.
Why This Cycle Will Not Be Short
Liquidity pressure, higher rates and delayed capex extend the runway of this restructuring wave. 2026 already looks heavy across both Germany and the UK.
Restructuring is not a tactical service line. It is the centre of gravity in the market’s next cycle.
The firms that execute, not the ones that only advise, are shaping it.
This post comments on:
Handelsblatt: 40 percent growth – How consultants and turnaround specialists are using the crisis (40 Prozent Wachstum – Wie Berater und Sanierer die Krise nutzen)
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Authors: Tanja Kewes · Date of publication: 3 December 2025
Ben Appleton is the founder of Strat-Bridge, a specialist executive search partner to the strategy consulting industry. He works with global consulting firms and senior leaders across the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and beyond — helping them build capability at the Partner and Director level.
