Knipe Whiting Heath & Associates Limited (05028288): administration
- Status
- Administration ended
- Administration began
- 2018-11-13
- Administrators
- Julie Anne Palmer, Brett Barton
- Administrators' firm
- Begbies Traynor
- Formerly
- Whiting & Jenner Limited
- Incorporated
- 2004-01-28
- Location
- Worcester
- Industry
- 69201 Accounting and auditing activities
Why it went into administration
- Cash flow / liquidity pressure
- Creditor pressure / legal action
From the administrators' statement
The accounting practice has been established in Hereford since 1983 and went through various different structures before it incorporated into a limited company in 2004. The directors of the Company have always been driven to grow the business and had purchased two businesses in 2011 as part of this process. The Company funded these acquisitions by way of a bank loan and absorbed the cost of the time and disruption in integrating the businesses together.
in 2016, a director of one of the acquisition portfolios decided that they wished to leave the Company. Not only did this result in a loss of approximately 1/3rd of the client portfolio but it left the Company with the residual debt from the loan obtained to fund the acquisition and a burden of being over staffed. Rather than undertake the redundancy process and cut the team, the remaining directors decided to let the feam reduce by natural shrinkage.
In July 2017 the computer system was hacked. This led to a significant decrease in profitability as a consequence of the considerable loss of chargeable time due to the time taken to rectify the situation.
Administrators' statement of proposals (2019-01-21) · Companies House register