Headley Brothers Limited (00491836): administration
- Status
- Administration ended
- Administration began
- 2017-03-02
- Administrators
- Gregory Andrew Palfrey, Stephen John Adshead
- Administrators' firm
- Evelyn Partners
- Incorporated
- 1951-02-22
- Location
- Southampton
- Industry
- 18129 Printing n.e.c.
Why it went into administration
- Funding withdrawn / unable to refinance
- Cash flow / liquidity pressure
- Loss of a key customer, supplier or contract
- Credit insurance / supplier credit withdrawn
- Competition / price pressure
From the administrators' statement
The family printing business commenced in 1881, with the current Company subsequently incorporated on 22 February 1951 operating from leasehold premises at Queens Road, Ashford, Kent. Its pnncipal activity 1s that of magazine, journal, catalogue, brochure and high quality printing, together with related services including World Wide Web page design Turnover was 99% from the UK, with sales consisting of substantial repeat work from a base of circa 200 active customers, a number of whom have been with the business for 10/20 years or more.
In the last five years, the Company has incurred significant trading tosses, most notably a loss of £941k in the year ended 31 December 2013, eroding its net asset base and leading to increasing cash flow difficulties. The Company’s latest draft annual accounts to 11 December 2015 show turnover of £19.2m, an operating loss of £26k, with a net loss of £424k after interest and tax. After recognising a loss on discontinued operations of
£1.4m, there was a resultant loss for the year of £1.8m. The business had restructured with the closure of some operations and headcount reductions and consolidated its operation to improve profitabilty whilst maintaining operational capacity. The loss of £1.4m was principally the wnte off of irrecoverable sums due from a subsidiary company Invicta Direct Limited following its closure and exceptional costs relating to the closure. Following these changes, management accounts show an operating profit of £131k for the subsequent period to 31 August 2016 before interest charges (£201K) and provision for exceptional items costs of redundancies and demerger costs (£130k).
Administrators' statement of proposals (2017-03-20) · Companies House register