Mayfair International Limited (01972975): administration
- Status
- Administration ended
- Administration began
- 2017-09-14
- Administrators
- Anthony Davidson, Andrew Mctear
- Administrators' firm
- Opus Restructuring
- Formerly
- Contex Trading Company Limited
- Incorporated
- 1985-12-19
- Location
- Norwich
- Industry
- 46420 Wholesale of clothing and footwear
Why it went into administration
- Loss of a key customer, supplier or contract
- Sustained trading losses
- Funding withdrawn / unable to refinance
From the administrators' statement
The Company was originally incorporated as Contex Trading Company Ltd in December 1985 and changed its name to Mayfair International Ltd in July 1986. The Company specialised in wholesale export of goods made in the UK to the Middie East. It was a partnership between founder/director Naresh Shah and two of his cousins who helped finance the business in its early days. Small losses were realised while the business was being established then the outbreak of the Kuwait War in 1992 saw continued losses and ail business effectively stopped. Trading restarted and the Company made small profits from 1993 to 1994 after the end of the war. Sanjay Shah then joined the business in 1994 to help it grow and find new opportunities. Customers started approaching Mayfair International Ltd to work on a commission basis and from 1995 to 1998 the business grew substantially with turnover reaching over £8 million.
With the decline in the UK manufacturing industry in the 1990’s the Company started sourcing goods from China. From 1999 to 2009 Mayfair International Ltd began establishing contacts with factories in China that produced customised goods and business fluctuated between profit and loss over this period due to travel expenses and increased financing requirements.
In 2009 the credit crunch took hold in the Middle East and the business suffered significant losses as demand shrank. From 2010 as the global economy started to slowly recover, Mayfair International Ltd started a gradual recovery and re-established itself as a major supplier to Middle East based retail groups.
Administrators' statement of proposals (2017-10-05) · Companies House register