Neil Goulden, the chairman of the gaming giant Gala Coral would prefer to forget the last 12 months of his life which have seen a 50 week restructuring program, a £10 million personal loss and the end of a 28 year marriage.

"It's been the year from hell. I'm going to write a book about it," he adds when talking about the hurdles the company has faced.

"There were so many stakeholders and there was so much at risk. Eighteen thousand employees. So it was a huge burden. It cost me my marriage as well, so there you go. I separated from my wife in the middle of it. I think she'd had enough. Really tough."

At 56 years old, the Chairman of what was once Britain’s biggest private company, is keen to look towards a brighter future. The company now has £700 million less debts and new owners as the previous investors Candover and Cinven wrote off £150 million each and Permira taking a hit for around £370 million.

"We are starting to look forwards, not constantly looking backwards," adds Goulden and it seems that the Chariman is now able to focus on the business rather than the debts of the company. "We're looking at what we are going to do with the businesses, rather than what are we going to do with the debt structure, where we've been and that constant navel gazing."

It wasn’t just the three main share holders that took massive losses. "It cost me personally about £10m," he adds and while it might be suggested it was a paper loss, Goulden is keen to point out "No it was not paper money. It was real money. I bought the shares when we bought Coral."

And while it looks like the worse is behind him things haven’t quite turned out as planned. Two years ago Goulden had spoken privately of winding down and helping his wife with her business but his working obligations clearly took their toll on the relationship. "She had a perception that she came second to the job. I knew there were problems and I was trying to readdress the balance. Maybe I left it too late. I feel quite guilty. It's my fault really." he recalls.

"That's all changed now, so I'm more open to staying on." he adds seeing a different path going forwards.

The costs the Chairman has endured has helped investors to have faith in his ability to lead the company. With the money gone the key parties knew that the only motive he had was in securing the best restructuring outcome for the company. The result was somewhat unpredictable however and he remembers the “darkest hour” in January as there was a stand-off between the company lenders and the three main shareholders. "It got to a stage when it looked as if we were going to have a stalemate. It was clear that the only way you would get a transfer of risk was if someone put some new money in," he adds.

"At one stage, the mezz lenders accused me of being in the pocket of the private equity players. The senior lenders accused me of being a mezz poodle. And my private equity players accused me of being too close to the senior lenders," he adds. Looking back he was looking for the solution, where all parties had conflicting interests and the one thing in common was the light at the end of the tunnel he recalls "My view on that was I had to be doing it about right because everyone seemed to hate me." There was always a risk that the senior lenders, led by RBS, which had its own problems at the time would pull the plug but the Chairman was confident that this would be somewhat suicidal. "If you call in the receivers you put all your licences at risk," he adds "That's why, in my view, the senior lenders would never have pushed the nuclear button."

If it hadn’t been for the world credit problems, Goulden thinks that the company would have avoided the problems with a "technical breach of one covenant" but unfortunately he adds "We got screwed. Or our shareholders got screwed, of which I was one." As the credit markets began to become more stable the hedge funds started to see the potential in the company. Investors began to work out that there was a good business buried in debt, "our mezz which had been trading at 22p in the pound shot up to 70p". This proved the catalyst as Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) to sold out, offloading a £130m stake at about 70pc of face value to Apollo Management, Cerberus Capital Management and Goldman Sachs.

"ICG broke the deadlock," says Goulden. The result five investors hold 63 percent of the company equity – Apollo with 25pc, Cerberus 18pc, Park Square and Goldman, with 8pc each, and York Capital holding 4pc.

"A lot of people have talked about equity through debt deals - ie moving in on a company, buying its debt and through that controlling its equity. But this is the only one that's really worked." Goulden adds. He is also keen to reject talks of breaking up the company "Rumours of early break-up are wide of the mark. Economically, it doesn't work,"

The Chairman sees opportunity in the future to make his own money back as well as opportunities for the management teams. "As our shareholders were losing money, it was wholly inappropriate for management to discuss new shares or bonus schemes," he adds, but incentives for “growth and out-performance” will certainly be hot topics in the future.

In terms of the bingo market, it is no secret that Gala has been hard hit in terms of the smoking ban, changes to machine legislation and increasing in gaming tax but Goulden sees the future in tempting back the 1.5 million customers on the company databases that are no longer active members. He is somewhat sceptical by the action of rivals Rank, in their new Top Hat Clubs which he suggests "a club designed by middle class people rather than what the customers really want". Goulden thinks the winning strategy for Gala Bingo will be in following value to the customer: "Our strategy is a value price strategy. It's the Asda approach. Everyday low prices."