There’s only one more week until the country goes to the polls in the General Election.
Whether you’ve followed every move up and down the polls or have been avoiding it for the excitement (excluding England and Scotland!) of the Euros – we’ve got something else to capture your attention with our collection of all the interesting business and insolvency news stories from the past seven days.
So if you want to find out why borrowing businesses continue to feel the squeeze; why billions of pounds of bounce back loan repayments have still to be collected; and if you’re still keen on political opinion – what does each industrial sector want from this election? And what each party has promised to businesses in their manifestos – You can read all these stories and more at our advice centre page.
Laybuy
A “buy now, pay later” company which offered their 300,000 customers the option to spread repayments across six-week instalments at nearly 10,500 shops and businesses has gone into administration.
Laybuy have suspended payments and appointed administrators with immediate effect who advise customers that while they are no longer accepting new transactions, they should continue to make their repayments.
Directors took the decision after a search process failed to secure additional investment or a buyer for the company.
29 positions have been made redundant as a result.
Gary Rohloff, founder and CEO said he was absolutely heartbroken at the decision to call in administrators.
He said: “We had been working incredibly hard to execute a plan to achieve profitability after years of rapid growth.
“While we have been making good progress over the last two years, the economic downturn has been longer than we expected, and this has had a significant impact on the retail sector in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
“As a result, we have seen reduced consumer spending, higher credit losses, and increased fraudulent activity. This, alongside increased financing costs, created a perfect storm that was difficult to recover from.
“The team tried everything it could to work through the issues including negotiations to sell the business but these fell over at the last hurdle.
“This left the board with no option but to make the gut-wrenching decision to voluntarily request the appointment of administrators. This is a difficult time for our team and I am devastated.”
He added that the absolute priority is to work with the administrators to ensure the best possible outcome for staff, creditors, suppliers and merchants.
DeadHappy
A Leicester based insurance brokerage firm renowned for its provocative and controversial advertisements is going into administration.
DeadHappy used photographs of serial killer Harold Shipman in its advertising. This was withdrawn after complaints from the Advertising Standards Authority and Financial Conduct Authority.
They stopped taking on new customers in March after their partners withdrew support.
The business used a disruptive fully digital pay-as-you-go approach to life insurance priced annually based on a customer’s current age and risk level rather than a prediction about their risk of dying across the next 20 years. They labelled their options on how payouts should be spent (on funeral costs, education or mortgage payments etc) as “deathwishes”.
A statement from the business at the time of the withdrawal said: “Our insurance partners have told us we can’t accept new life insurance customers at the moment. We wish it was different’ we believe it should be different, but unfortunately not everyone agrees.
“Although life insurance might look incredibly easy on the surface, there’s a lot of moving parts going on underneath. Sometimes a part can break and in this instance we’re doing our very best to fix it.”
Revus Fleet Solutions
A Birmingham-based national corporate fleet support business has gone into administration after directors failed to find a viable alternative.
Rivus Fleet Solutions provided service, maintenance and repair (SMR) for the Metropolitan Police Service, the National Grid and National Highways amongst others.
55 positions were made redundant but 165 positions and the majority of the company’s assets were sold to the Metropolitan Police allowing the continuation of the delivery of crucial fleet services to the country’s largest police service.
Under the previous arrangement, Rivus managed and repaired a fleet of 3,700 emergency response, support and general purpose vehicles.
A statement from the business said: “We are pleased to have successfully secured a transaction which safeguards 165 jobs, despite Rivus having suffered the loss of a material customer at the end of last year.
“We will continue to focus our efforts on ensuring a smooth continuation of any services required post-sale to minimise disruption for non-Met customers as well as support the Met in any transitional services required.”
National Grid is in the process of making alternative arrangements for the service of its vehicles. Lorna McAtear, Head of fleet, said: “We weren’t surprised but we hoped it wouldn’t happen because they’re a long-standing company.
“It’s a reflection of how difficult the marketplace is now, especially for specialist vehicles.
Rivus struggled to replace business after losing a fleet maintenance deal with the BT Group in July 2023. This saw 600 redundancies made as a result.
Laragh House Developments
A Cambridgeshire property development business has ceased trading and gone into voluntary liquidation with the loss of nine positions.
The decision follows a joint project with the Stretham and Wilburton Community Land Trust to build 115 homes on a site in Wilburton being turned down by East Cambridgeshire District Council. Despite presenting evidence, the scheme was widely criticised for its lack of community support and is currently subject to an investigation by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority over purported backing for it.
Originally founded in 2007, Laragh House Developments had worked on several housing development projects in the Cambridgeshire area.
Cartwright Bros
A haulage company has gone into administration and ceased trading after 80 years of trading from its Lincolnshire base.
Cartwright Bros was founded in 1944 by four siblings. Working primarily in the agricultural sector operating 60 vehicles.
Jamie Cartwright, CEO, said: “It was with tremendous sadness that we had to close the doors at Cartwright last week.
“Running a haulage business over the past decade has come with huge challenges – rising diesel prices, a difficult economy, along with huge constraints caused by Covid.
“Cartwright was never able to continue in the same vein since Covid plus the Ukrainian war had a huge impact on our sector in terms of fuel price increases, acquiring replacement parts for vehicles and having to wait long periods of time for these parts to arrive – at inflated prices.
“All of these challenges were underpinned by serious lorry driver shortages following Brexit which added even more pressure along with legislation changes which continued to impede our versatility.
“Last year more than 450 UK haulage businesses went out of business. These are stark figures for the industry and something needs to be done to ensure that this much-needed sector thrives and survives.”
You don’t have to wait until after the election to see how you can make a decision that can have an immediate positive impact on your future – you can do it right now by arranging a free appointment with one of our team of advisors!
Once they get a fuller picture of the business and its financial circumstances, they will let you know all the options available to you and then help you decide, depending on your goals, how to proceed.
All you have to do to make this happen is get in touch today.