ICSM Print Business News: phoenixed firm left more than £1million in debts

By Harry Mottram: Covid has been blamed for the demise of UK Printing Company (UKPC) in a report in the trade publication Print Week. The journalist Dominic Bernard reported: “UK Printing Company appointed administrators from FRP Advisory on 27 March. Administrators at UK Printing Company (UKPC), which phoenixed in late March, have published details of the pre-pack sale of the business. Revealing an estimated shortfall to unsecured creditors of £839,000 – including £232,642 in CBILS loans and an overdraft with Lloyds Bank – on the administrators’ notice of proposals, signed 3 April, Mark Hodgett and David Willis of FRP Advisory’s Leeds branch explained that a pre-pack sale was deemed the best option for UKPC’s creditors and staff.”

In a detailed account of the issues facing the firm, administrators FRP are still chasing outstanding invoices to the tune of more than £150,000 while blaming Covid as a significant factor in causing a downturn in business. They won’t be the only printing company hit by the pandemic and its lock downs but it did draw down two CBILs loans which then became due to be repaid.

Book debt collections at UKPC of Yorkshire are still ongoing, with FRP hoping to cover the £166,000 shortfall from UKPC’s confidential invoice discount facility with business bank Bibby with the money raised. Despite this according to Print Week the firm increased turn over and made profits in the following years but in the last financial year barely broke even making a loss of £1,000. A bad debt of £30,000 caused the business to fail to pay suppliers and financially ground t a halt as problems increased.

To quote Print Week: “Realising that the firm would need a significant cash injection over the next year, but unwilling to provide a personal guarantee to support additional lending, the administrators said that UKPC director and majority shareholder Adam Robinson no longer considered the business viable in its current form. Approaching FRP on 26 February, Robinson then asked the business advisory to run an accelerated marketing of UKPC for sale as a going concern. Deciding that a pre-pack would be of most benefit to UKPC, its creditors, and the 26 staff at the firm, Robinson instructed FRP to try to secure a sale immediately after going into administration.”

Eyebrows may well be raised as despite a bidding process for potential buyers which apparently included several serious parties it was Adam Robinson and his existing management team who with a new company bought the business in a pre-pack.

For Print Week’s article see https://www.printweek.com/content/news/ukpc-admins-reveal-shortfall

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