Angel Cards Limited (02828751): administration
- Status
- Administration ended
- Administration began
- 2015-12-30
- Administrators
- Paul Ellison, Gareth Wyn Roberts
- Administrators' firm
- KRE Corporate Recovery
- Incorporated
- 1993-06-21
- Location
- Reading
- Industry
- 47789 Other retail sale of new goods in specialised stores (not commercial art galleries and opticians)
Why it went into administration
- Sustained trading losses
From the administrators' statement
The director, Mr Joe Negal started with Angel Cards Ltd in 2002 and in 2011 became a 90% shareholder of the company, managing all operations with the business trading from six stores Around this time there was a large change within the greeting card industry with discount stores such as Card Factory opening many stores in the south of England This led to saturation of cheaper product available, and together with the poor performance on the high street in general, led to very difficult trading conditions
The performance of each store was reviewed periodically and if departmental accounts proved that a store was no longer profitable and any effort to change this pattern had failed, the Company would not enter into a new lease agreement and/or would look to reassign an existing lease This practice led to the closure of several stores including Bexleyheath, Poplar, Croydon and Woolwich Efforts were always made to replace closed stores with new ones and in September 2015, Ramsgate was opened
The trading year of 2015 started on a positive note with the four remaining stores performing well The Gosport store was given a new shop front and began trading as Angel Cards rather than Cardwise, and this had a positive effect on turnover In an attempt to increase turnover, it was agreed by the directors’ of the Company that more outlets could be required, and to this affect Presentimes in Faversham was identified as a possible site A price was agreed with the vendors for the business, however negotiations with the landlord proved extremely difficult and after four to five months of negotiations, the deal collapsed due to possible future dilapidations the building may have This had a massive effect on cash flow as £30,000 of stock had been purchased, and surveyor and legal bills still had to be paid despite the acquisition falling through
Administrators' statement of proposals (2016-02-01) · Companies House register