ICSM Business Membership Group: fighting late and non-payment – News in Brief – Homes and garden firm folds; Relate in trouble; Thames Water latest; and logistics firm crashes

By Harry Motttam: With the mess left by the collapse of HomeBase continuing with buyers scramble to buy the best sites another homes and gardens firm has hit the buffers.

Mercers

Insolvency Insider has reported that Mercer Agencies, a Northern Ireland-based wholesale distributor of Christmas and garden ranges across the UK and Ireland, entered administration on 29 November 2024.

They reported: “The company was hit by cost inflation within global logistics, poor summer weather driving lower than expected sales and wider sector challenges. Scott Murray and Ian Davison of Keenan Corporate Finance were appointed as joint administrators. The company has around 200,000 items of stock across approximately 3,000 stock lines. The joint administrators are arranging an orderly wind down of the company to realise this stock. The Bank of Ireland and NI Growth Loan Fund II General Partner, in Its capacity as general partner of NI Growth Loan Fund II, have registered charges against the company.”

Hickory

Meanwhile a hospitality outfit in Scotland has gone bust. Hickory has provided catering services at events including weddings, private and corporate functions and the Scottish Open Golf Competition. The 140 staff have been made redundant and the suppliers are waiting to see if they will be paid. The usual suspects behind the collapse have been listed by company’s directors of Covid, inflation, interest rates and the cost of living crisis. Charles Turner and Mark Harper of Opus were appointed joint administrators on 20 November 2024.

Thames Water

Thames Water have been given a lifeline in the form of loans which will keep it afloat until at least October of 2025. The £3bn loan gives it time to restructure the restricted loans it already has amounting to around £16 bn of debts. Nobody thinks they will be able to survive as the debts continue to accrue – so nationalisation is likely in the future. Contractors and suppliers – you have been warned.

Relate

Set up in 1938 as the Marriage Guidance Council, the counselling charity changed its name to  Relate in 1988 – but it has suffered from a number of its contracts being pulled and has collapsed as a result. A statement from Relate said: “The financial climate and the loss of government contracts has impacted Relate Ltd’s ability to sustain that service. They are currently exploring various restructuring options that might be available to the charity in consultation with the local network of centres.

 “Relate’s central support organisation has fallen into financial difficulty following the loss of government contracts. It will continue to trade while options for restructuring are considered. Relate operates on a federation basis and the activities of the 26 independent centres that make up the Relate Federation are not affected. They continue to deliver their relationship counselling and other services as normal. It has unfortunately been necessary to make approximately 80 employees redundant. This is just under a third of the overall workforce and around 200 employees remain in post. Those affected are being supported with applications to the Redundancy Payments Service.”

Phil Reynolds, of the administrators FRP Advisory, said: “We’re exploring a number of options for the central support organisation and are in communication with both employees and clients about what the ongoing process means for them.”

The Guardian reported: “Relate’s finances have been under pressure for the last few years, with austerity-era cuts in public funding triggering a series of restructurings and brand refreshes, including in 2017 when a third of its federated centres were merged into the central charity. Its last published accounts, for the year 2022-23 showed a £690,000 loss on income from its services of £6.7m, while Charity Commission filings show its income from public sector contracts fell from £1.9m in 2019 to £338,000 in 2022-23. Levels of financial reserves had fallen to below three months’ operating costs.”

Caledonian

And finally, Caledonian Logistics went bust at the end of November. The Aberdeen haulage firm employed 130 staff, and have appointed Donald McNaught and Graeme Bain of Johnston Carmichael as joint administrators. One of the factors for its failure is the lack of funding according to reports by Drac Logistics who bought the firm two years ago. LHV Bank, Bibby Invoice Discounting and HSBC Bank have registered charges against the company.

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