A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE businesswoman who lives near Burton is to front a new television show in which she tries to turn around the fortunes of ailing businesses.

Hilary Devey, who lives at Rangemore, is to star in the new Five show called The Business Inspector.

The show is based along similar lines to the channel's successful The Hotel Inspector and the four-part series, starts next week.

The series has been produced by Optomen Television, which has made Channel 4's Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and the BBC's Mary Queen of Shops.

Hilary is the founder, chief executive and chairman of the Pall-Ex Group, a multi-million pound freight-distribution business she set up from scratch.

In The Business Inspector, she visits eight very different businesses, from a fitness firm to a haulage company.

Each week, two are featured, with troubleshooter Hilary getting to the root of their problems in her forthright style. She then offers solutions.

She said: "Britain's brimming with creativity but a terrifying number of businesses go bust each year and this shouldn't be happening.

"In the series, I teach businesses how to improve their all-round business knowledge and direction, cash flow, marketing strategy and, in some cases, even their enthusiasm.

"I thoroughly enjoyed filming the series. It was a real eye-opener seeing where some of these businesses were going wrong.

"I think the most common mistake being made was in their accounting.

Alarmingly, some of them just didn't understand their accounts.

"If you don't understand your accounts, how can you tell whether the business is performing well or not?

"I'm a straightforward person and I don't pull any punches. I told them exactly what I thought.

"Some of the firms were like sponges and absorbed the information. But there were one or two that were pig-headed, which certainly made for interesting telly!"

Hilary, who has won numerous business awards for her success, is no stranger to the television cameras. In 2008, she appeared in the Channel 4 show, Secret Millionaire.

She said: "When the makers of The Business Inspector approached me to take it on, I thought 'why not?'

"I'm pretty adaptable to most things. But I didn't realise just how intensive the filming process would be. We were working 17-hour days at times and it felt harder than running my own business.

"But I just threw myself into the whole thing. I got into it so much that there were many times I just forgot the camera was there. By the end of it I could've fallen asleep standing up, I was that tired!"

Hilary said she also got a lot of satisfaction out of helping the firms in the series and hopes that her advice will help them have a more successful future.

She said: "I think too many businesses rely on the recession as an excuse for their poor performance. Yes, it has hurt a lot of firms, but with some of those companies the problems were probably already there for years.

"For example, the haulage business featured in the series – 98% of its customer base was involved in construction, a sector that had been hit hard. It never stopped to realise that it might be a risk to be so reliant on one sector.

"At my company, Pall-Ex, we have actively sought out new markets that helped ensure we had a good spread of clients, something which offered us more protection.

"I would certainly be up for doing more programmes and I'm sure there will be a follow-up to this series where we revisit some of the businesses featured and catch up on how they are doing."

The Business Inspector will begin airing on Wednesday, March 17, at 8pm.