Jim Bell has an entrepreneur’s enthusiasm for finding opportunities in troubled times.

Foundocean, Bell’s business, which specialises in underwater engineering for oil and gas platforms, could have been sunk when its bank announced that it was withdrawing a crucial £115,000 overdraft facility at the end of last year. The money was needed to see the business through its busy spring period, when cashflow swings from a five-figure debit to a £600,000 profit in one month.