“I got a telephone call on 13 January and was asked would I come and talk to Andrew Russell and see if there was anything I could do with the situation that Arran Aromatics was in,” recalls Pittman, who has been quietly making a name as one of Scotland’s leading company doctors for the past few years.

In the course of the call from an unnamed member of the advisory community, Pittman discovered he was being invited to take on what to some may have looked like a hopeless case on Arran, where the famed maker of soaps and smellies was deep in the red and under a mountain of debt.

“When I met them it was to talk through the fact that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs had a petition out for closing the company which was due in three days for £180,000 underpaid PAYE and NIC.”

For the 46-year-old Pittman, however, the prospect of getting involved was irresistible.

This may be partly due to his love of a challenge. But in the case of Arran Aromatics there was a special resonance for Pittman, who recalls a happy childhood in Dunoon on the Cowan peninsula that was marked by a singular enthusiasm on his part.

“I was one of those strange people that wanted to get involved in making things,” he says, relishing the memory of summers spent helping at a local amusement centre.

In the case of Arran Aromatics, he saw what is a real rarity in contemporary Scotland: a business that still designs and manufactures its products in the country. Founded by Janet and Iain Russell in 1988, Arran Aromatics has built a brand that is known across the world. With around 60 employees it is the biggest private sector employer on the island.

As Pittman had been scouring Scotland for a small firm in which to invest since 2000, the company ticked all the boxes.

“I’m not just a romantic but the idea of manufacturing on Arran appeals to me. There are close to 60 jobs, it’s got very good products and there’s 20 years of history in it. Myself and the team felt there must be an opportunity of giving this business a new lease of life.”

“I really liked Andrew Russell (son of the founders) who’s very, very passionate about the products and a very good sales individual and I bought into the story.”

The decision to get involved marked the start of a frantic round of activity, which had as its first objective ensuring the business remained alive long enough to be helped.

“There was three hectic days. We wrote to all the major politicians and said we can’t take a company that’s been trading on Arran for 20 years and that’s got a strong Scottish and an iconic brand, you can’t let this go to the wall for lack of funding.”

Pittman pays tribute to the local MSP Kenneth Gibson who he says played a key role in persuading HMRC to grant a stay of execution of two weeks.

This gave Pittman time to do the rounds of venture capitalists and enterprise bodies that he had been dealing with for some years.

However, his pleas fell on deaf ears. Whatever potential value the brand may have had, potential backers were scared off by the fact the company had not filed audited accounts since 2005.

The solution involved Pittman investing alongside Tony Owens, a finance specialist with whom he has co-operated on other turnarounds. The two men worked closely together in helping Linn Products, the famed Scottish audio products maker, get out of the red following a period in which the company lost its way. Owens is still finance director of Linn, where Pittman is a non-executive director.

“He is an extraordinarily good FD, he is a very strong turnaround FD as someone who loves a problem. There are people who just enjoy sorting out bags of bolts.”

The founding family also provided additional money while Bank of Scotland provided debt. This made Arran one of the few firms that raised money at the height of the banking sector’s troubles.

The support allowed Pittman to agree schedules to repay the company’s creditors and on 23 February he replaced Alistair Renwick as managing director. He also became chairman.

Pittman bought into a business that had apparently been unable to solve the problem of how to generate enough profitable sales to make the cash it needed to ensure its long-term viability. The slowdown in consumer spending triggered by the credit crunch obviously increased the pressure.

“There was a total disconnect between the sales operation forging ahead breaking into new sales channels and what was happening in Arran. Manufacturing was not connected in Arran,” says Pittman.

“The focus had been lost. They got themselves deeper and deeper and deeper into trouble and they did not know how to get out of it.”

Pittman does not blame anyone but his diagnosis is painfully blunt.

“There are some really good, clever people in Arran who are now freed up to make decisions.

“Decisions were not being taken. The worst thing to do in a situation like that is to do nothing.” Enthused by Andrew Russell’s plans for sales, Pittman set about making changes to the manufacturing systems, supply chain and financial management to ensure the firm could support some of the moves that he planned.

Part of this involved drawing on lessons they had learnt at Linn.

“They had a strong product development team that was not engaged with the manufacturing process,” he said.

The approach at Arran has focused on basics like effective cash management and making sure that the company made products that could sell at prices on which it could make money.

Pittman is pleased that the rationalisation involved only a handful of redundancies.

He is delighted by the progress made to date.

“We’ve made good progress and done all that we said we would do.”

Arran is now totally up to date with all its accounts.

The company has negotiated successfully with its creditors, repaid £1m trade debts and agreed a payment plan with HMRC which it has stuck to.

Paying tribute to what he describes as a “completely engaged” management team, Pittman is happy to report that sales are currently running ahead of the levels recorded last year.

The flagship retail store in Glasgow’s Princes Square has been doing so well that directors have decided to hit the expansion trail.

The company took the first step on a plan under which it will increase the number of retail outlets from one to 12 last month when it opened a new outlet in the tourist Mecca of Gretna.

A second Glasgow store is due to open in the prestige Buchanan Galleries next Saturday.

Noting that the company’s products were recently selected for the washrooms of the swanky Carlyle Hotel in New York, Pittman says there is great scope to grow exports.

The recent fall in the value of the pound may help. It also looks set to provide a boon for the Arran manufacturing operation in the form of increased orders to produce goods for others.

Pittman says the fact that Arran is happy to produce small runs of 1,000 bottles can help win business from some firms who may be reluctant to commit to the huge runs that contract manufacturers in places like China insist on and the related currency risks.

In the longer term, Pittman is mulling plans to move the brand upmarket once Arran is secure in the position where it can choose what it wants to do.

“Then we can think about what the brand strategy should be. Is it a cottage industry on Arran or should it be bigger?” he said.

A fan of sailing, Pittman will be happy to continue to divide his time between the Glasgow home he shares with his wife and three

children and the island where he has had none of the problems that some newcomers to outlying

communities face.

“I have the advantage that my accent is from not far away,” he said.

“Coming from a place like Dunoon, I understand a lot of the psyche of Arran. I have been accepted very, very well.”

But the chemistry graduate who spent years working in grimy heavy industrial operations such as the old Alcan aluminium rolling mill in Polmadie, Glasgow will not be pulling his punches.

“I talk to the people and I tell them the truth as a I see it. It’s up to them to make their minds up.”