As chief executive of the company that produces Slendertone exercise equipment, it should come as no surprise that the beaming cardiologist turned venture capitalist turned corporate executive is a picture of health and is full of beans even on a wet west of Ireland winter morning.

It's a wonder she has any energy left after a gruelling couple of years in charge at the troubled medical device firm. Smith and her team are still in the midst of what she describes as "the mother of all turnarounds".

Smith joined in 2003 when the company was 11.5m in debt and facing disaster. Costs had spiralled out of control, losses were mounting and creditors were getting ready to give up the ghost. "It's a miracle they didn't close us down, " Smith says.

BMR's problems began in 2002 on the eve of what the company had hoped would be its greatest triumph. The company had planned to launch its Slendertone exercise belts, which stimulate abdominal muscles using an electrical current, in the US.

The belts had been approved for sale in the States by the Food and Drug Administration.

Slendertone's research indicates that users can increase strength and muscle tone by up to 49%, one of several findings supported by the FDA which thus allowed BMR to make the claims in its product advertising. Unfortunately for the Irish company, a wave of unapproved copycat products appeared on the market claiming to produce exactly the same results. Suddenly cheap ab-toning belts were everywhere.

Many of the competing belts did not work, claims Smith. Slendertone was losing potential sales to competitors whose inferior products were undercutting it on price but, more ominously, were damaging Slendertone's products by association.

"There is a bit of a credibility issue around electrotherapy. The first question I always get is, do they work?"

says Smith. They do, she says, noting that in order to secure regulatory approval in the first place the company had to be able to stand over every claim it makes. "We'll always look to make sure that what you see is what you get. If it says it on the pack, it will do it."

BMR is emphatic on this issue and it fought back in the States to defend its reputation. It enlisted the help of both the FDA and the Federal Trade Commission to prevent its competitors selling what BMR said were cheap, inferior products which made the same claims as Slendertone but didn't deliver. The US authorities agreed and went to bat on Slendertone's behalf.

By that stage the damage had been done. Even as Slendertone's rivals were being forced out of the US, they diverted their product to less regulated markets, first in Europe and then in Asia, leaving BMR fighting fires from country to country and burning cash.

In 2001 it had sales of 66.8m between Slendertone and sales of its German-based healthcare business Neurotech. That year BMR made pre-tax profit of 4.5m. In 2002 it booked a loss of T 17.5m. Sales dropped to 60m and fell to just under 35m the following year as the company closed many of its international offices and laid off staff.

"I didn't know what had hit me on the day I arrived, " she says.

Smith had been approached by the company's chairman, former head of ICC Venture Capital Tom Kirwan.

ICC, an early BMR backer, had shown faith in the company to the tune of a fresh 13m in funding and 4.5m in loans.

Smith says the scale of the task was nearly overwhelming. Morale had been hit hard by the restructuring and by job losses, including the closure of its Donegal factory with the loss of over 100 jobs as the company farmed out production to China. She was apprehensive about taking on the job at BMR in the circumstances.

Being dropped into the hot seat at the Galway company "as an English person and a woman" with a brief to cut costs wasn't ideal. In the event, she says, the staff were "very welcoming" despite the difficult circumstances. More job cuts followed her arrival, however, with staff laid off at the Galway headquarters in early 2004 and in spring of last year.

All told, BMR reduced its head count by more than 300, from 512 employees at its peak in 2002 to 187. The departures included some staff who were disillusioned with the seemingly relentless cost-cutting and voluntarily headed for the exits.

"We were thin enough on the ground and then you lose key people, " she says. "If anything we're a little bit too lean.

The elastic can only stretch so far and at the moment we're beginning to creak a little bit at the seams."

Fortunately, BMR's weightloss programme is starting to produce some gains to go with the pain. The company posted pre-tax losses of 5.4m in 2004, according to its most recent set of audited accounts, down from 12.3m the previous year. The 2004 results reflect exceptional costs due to the extensive restructuring which took place during the period, says Smith. That has now started to filter through to the bottom line, and the company returned to profit last year according to Smith.

"We traded ahead of our budget all the way through 2005, month on month."

The company has not yet finalised its 2005 accounts but Smith says BMR's revenue grew from 29m in 2004 to over 40m. Slendertone has begun to gain traction in several markets, notably Japan, where the company sold 250,000 toning belts last year.

Slendertone's early experience in its key Asian market mirrored its US nightmare but Smith says the company felt Japan was worth persevering with. The main attraction was the Japanese fondness for home shopping channels on television, what marketers call Direct Response TV (DRTV).

"I think the reason it works so well on DRTV is that you have a lot of time to explain the difference between this and cheaper, copycat products, " she says. Smith says the infomercials have also generated sales through retail channels because people have seen the ads on television. "I think people have become very aware of it from TV. The selling job is already done, if you like."

The ads may be a hit but behind the scenes the "selling job" involves a lot of air miles and jetlag. Smith and her management team log frequent trips to the far east, visiting customers and distributors in Japan, manufacturers in China and exploring potential new markets in Asia such as South Korea. It's great to get home after such an exhausting trip, says Smith.

Home is now very definitely in Galway. She professes a long-standing love for the Joyce county, having spent most of her childhood summers in the west with Irish relatives.

"A lot of people say what are you doing on the west coast of Ireland, but if you do as much travelling as I do it's absolutely brilliant to come back to a place as beautiful as this, " she says. Smith is currently building a house in the Gaeltacht area of Barna, which requires her to learn Irish. The lessons are going well, she says, but politely declines an invitation to try out her cupla focail.

Bridging the cultural divide between the west of Ireland and east Asia, meanwhile, brings its own challenges.

BMR shipped some criticism following the launch of Flex BT, a Slendertone product designed around a pair of shorts with electrodes to exercise muscles in the bottom and thighs.

Unfortunately, the first manufacturing run had been produced with European body types in mind. "With the shorts, we were criticised for them being too big . . . and certainly for Asia they were . . . so now we make them in three sizes, " she says.

The success of the DRTV model in Japan has helped shape the company's sales and marketing effort in other markets. The US distributor, Compex, was persuaded by the Japanese success to invest in DRTV and has begun to see some rewards.

"They adopted DRTV in February 2005 and started to really drive a significant response in the second half, " says Smith.

Despite Slendertone's disastrous experience in the US first time around, Smith believes there is great potential for the brand. "All that pain that we went through really now should begin to pay off. It's now very difficult for our competitors to get in there, " she says.

BMR is turning its attention to other markets too. Germany, which also has a strong DRTV culture, holds promise.

In recent months the company has signed distribution deals in several countries including Canada, South Korea, Sweden and Portugal.

Smith says it is vital that the company manages its expansion carefully. Creditors and suppliers have been patient, she says, and BMR does not want to do anything that would delay its ability to repay them. Having edged back into the black, it hopes to make serious inroads into its 11.5m "legacy debt" this year.

The balance sheet may not yet be back to full fitness but Smith believes the company is definitely on the road to recovery. Asked how it got there, she says above all it has been a matter of management, staff and creditors believing that BMR still had a viable business despite its travails.

"If you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, then you're probably not going to get there."

THE WOMAN AND HER COMPANY

Name: Trish Smith
Age: 48
Background: Born in Lincoln. Studied medicine in Nottingham and worked as a cardiologist. Then switched to a career in finance and set up a consultancy specialising in due diligence for private equity investors in medical device companies.

Former ICC Venture Capital head Tom Kirwan, chairman of the ICC-backed BMR, approached Smith to lead the company in 2003.

Hobbies: Skiing.

Company: Bio-Medical Research
Financial Information: Turnover of 29m in 2004 on which it made a pre-tax loss of 5.4m
History: Founded by Kevin McDonnell, who bought the patents from a German company which had gone into administration. BMR comprises Slendertone, which makes exercise equipment, and Neurotech, which supplies equipment to healthcare providers in Germany.