ICSM News Update: the tangled businesses and eye-wateringly high sums owed by Callprint as administrators ‘won’t let it go’ as further extension granted (plus who has gone bust in the print industry)
More firms are likely to crash this autumn as the life-support finance of furlough payments are ended on September 30.
Many will call it a day and call in the administrators said Ian Carrotte of ICSM. One firm who called in the administrators before the covid crisis remains in administration due to the tangled businesses linked to Callprint.
Ian Carrotte said: “The administrators were called in three years ago and have been trying to get to the bottom of the affairs and to get some justice for the suppliers who have lost out. I wish there were more administrators like Duff & Phelps who won’t let it go.”
Writing for Print Week, the journalist Jo Francis reported: “It is the third time the administration has been extended. Administrator Benjamin Wiles of Kroll (formerly Duff & Phelps) applied to extend it until 31 August 2022. After Call Print Group Ltd and Call Print Services Ltd went into administration in August 2018, administrators subsequently found “material misstatements” in the group’s previously filed accounts. The administrators also deployed forensic accountants as part of an investigation into transactions that took place beforehand. This included the sale of Callprint’s Dubai-based business, Call Print Express, to the group’s then-managing director Steve Cheek less than a month before Callprint filed an intention to appoint administrators.”
When the company went into administration the companies related to Callprint owed the taxman the best part of a million pounds and print related suppliers a fortune. Their insurers were left more than £66,000 out of pocket while the print industry’s Xerox were owed £100,771, Antalis were stung for £76,207, and Canon UK took a £54,000 hit and Oce UK were owed £38,736.
Ian Carrotte said: “These sums can sink a supplier – even a fairly large firm may not survive these type of debts. It was reported at the time that one part of the empire was sold to its managing director days before calling in the administrators raised eyebrows amongst their suppliers. There is definitely something not right here if Duff & Phelps have got another year to uncover it.”
Below is a list of print industry related firms who have hit the buffers:
PRINTING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES
Administrators Appointed
24 Live UK Limited 08433977
KEO Films Limited 03138064
KLT Communications Limited 11059534
Administrators Meetings Para 51
Monument Paper Bag Company Limited (The) 00481099
Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation Deemed in Consent Meetings
Adlestrop Creative Platform Limited 12059603
Aventor Design Limited 04557090
Boom Advertising Limited 11769873
Elmley Sales & Marketing Limited 10607048
Grand Design London Limited 09024197
Ian Rogers Media Limited 11366945
Sixth Story Creative Limited 07451857
TES Media Group Limited 08704040
Waltham Print Limited 09904745
Liquidators Appointed
Adlestrop Creative Platform Ltd 12059603
Apple Graphics Uk Limited 10390034
Boradside Posting Services Limited 04304382
Clinton Smith Design Limited 05859993
Colour Rite Limited 05853308
Creative Group Inc Ltd. 10868477
Fam Media Limited 12161783
Four Four Studio Limited 11892103
Grand Design London Limited 09024197
Hallam Signs & Graphics Limited 09520982
H K Packaging Limited 11853663
Hilton Publicity Limited 10424957
Image Star Creative Solutions Limited 11456909
LCE Architects (UK) Limited 07491229
McLaren Marketing (Yorkshire) Limited 04223683
Mint Copy Limited 08945356
Mountain Paw-Print Limited 07617318
Platform Press & Publicity Limited 07864344
SA Marketing Solutions Limited 08986721
Soho Post Production Limited 08848965
TCE Productions Limited 08906321
TES Media Group Limited 08704040
Time Design Limited 11925131
TMS Publishing Limited 11002243
Vanadu Limited t/as First Point Print 02562027
Villiers Forbes Design Limited 05419711
Waltham Print Limited 09904745
Members Voluntary Liquidations
BOHL Publishing and Consulting Limited 09812398
By Design (UK) Limited 06019413
Ink Studio London Limited 08442694
JCA International Sales Promotion Services Limited 03427899
MB Designs Limited 09580795
PPS Media Limited 03165439
Smudge Media Limited 10251647
Petitions to Wind Up
Aequitas Packing (UK) Limited 08913537
Winding up orders
One Space Media Limited 06741203
Strata Shopfitting Solutions Limited 08201475
About ICSM Credit
ICSM Credit has more than four decades of experience as a credit intelligence group whose members gain inside information about firms in trouble allowing them to avoid bad debts and rogue traders. To join costs less than a tank of fuel - while at the moment there's a special free temporary membership offer during the Covid-19 crisis which gives access to free legal letters. ICSM also has an effective debt collecting service which has a global reach - ask for details from Paul.
For details about ICSM Credit call 0844 854 1850 or visit the website www.icsmcredit.com or email Ian at Ian.carrotte@icsmcredit.com on how to subscribe and to join the UK’s credit intelligence network to avoid bad debts and late payers. Follow ICSM Credit on FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube and Ian Carrotte on LinkedIn.
To keep up to date subscribe to the FREE ICSM Credit Newsletter to hear all the latest insolvency news and to see who has gone out of business click on the orange panel on the top left of the home page of the website www.icsmcredit.com or send an email to Ian.carrotte@icsmcredit.com
For details for the work of the journalist Harry Mottram visit www.harrymottram.co.uk
Types of Insolvency
Administration
Administration applies to limited companies and partnerships and is intended to get the company out of trouble and trading again if possible. Administrators can be appointed to a company that is unable, or is likely to become unable, to pay its debts. They can be appointed by the courts (on application from a creditor, directors or partners), the holder of a qualifying floating charge over the assets of the business, or the company or its directors. An administrator's primary goal is to rescue the company as a going concern. If this isn't possible, the administrator will try to get a better result for the creditors than would be possible if the company was wound up. If neither of these is possible, the administrator will sell the company's property to make at least a partial payment to one or more secured or preferential creditors, such as employees or the bank.
Administrators Meetings Para 51
This statement by the administrator of his proposals must be accompanied by an invitation to an initial creditors' meeting (Sch B1, para 51(1)).
Bankruptcy
This can only apply to individuals (including sole traders and individual members of a partnership). Bankruptcy petitions may be presented to the court by the individual, by creditors who are owed £750 or more, or by the supervisor of an individual voluntary arrangement. A bankruptcy order is made by the court.
Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA)
A company comes to an arrangement with its creditors to pay the debts in full or in part over time. A CVA begins with the company (or its adviser) drafting a formal proposal at a Creditors' Meeting to pay part or all of the debts. If the proposal is accepted by the creditors, the arrangement will become legally binding and the directors will retain control of the company.
Compulsory Liquidation
This is the winding up of a company or a partnership by a court order (a winding up order). A petition is normally presented to the court by a creditor stating that he or she is owed a sum of money by the company and that the company cannot pay.
The Official Receiver becomes liquidator when the order is made but an Insolvency Practitioner will be appointed to take over if the company has significant assets. The liquidator's role is to realise the company's assets, pay all the fees and charges arising from the liquidation, and pay the creditors as far as funds allow in a strict order of priority.
Compulsory Liquidators Appointed S 136
When a winding-up order has been made, the Official Receiver is initially appointed as liquidator (section 136, IA 1986). The company's creditors and contributories may appoint another individual, who must be a registered insolvency practitioner, to act as liquidator (section 139, IA 1986). More than one liquidator can be appointed to act jointly.
Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation
Here the shareholders pass a resolution to wind the company up without the need for a court order. A Creditors' Meeting is held to nominate the appointment of a liquidator and consider a statement of affairs. Creditors can appoint a committee to work with the liquidator, whose role is to realise the company's assets, pay all the fees and charges arising from the liquidation, and pay the creditors as far as funds allow in a strict order of priority.
Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation Deemed in Consent Meeting
Creditors are now 'deemed to have consented' to a decision or resolution if 10% of creditors (by value) have not objected to it. In other words, if objections are not received by the specified decision date, creditors are 'deemed to have consented' to the decision or resolution.
Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA)
An individual comes to an arrangement with creditors to pay his/her debts in full or in part over time as an alternative to bankruptcy. The arrangement is set up by a licensed Insolvency Practitioner who will put it to a meeting of creditors. If the proposal is accepted at the meeting, the agreement reached with the creditors will be legally binding. An Interim Order is sometimes issued by a court and will immediately protect the debtor from any legal action by creditors.
Petitions to Wind Up
A winding up petition is a legal notice put forward to the court by a creditor. The application, in effect, asks the court to liquidate the company as they believe the company is insolvent. Proceeds of the liquidation can be used to pay back creditors.