PROMOTIONAL GOODS INDUSTRY ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Distributor Failure Analysis Version One ‐ July 2013 1.1.180913
The hard‐hitting document that could one day save your business Prepared For: Suppliers in the Promotional Goods Industry Prepared By: Mike Collins of AccountAssyst 1
CONTENTS: Page Number Introduction 3 4 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 10 12 13 14 14 16 18 23 25 28 33 34 37 51 61 The Main Analysis Credit Report Limit at Demise Lifetime Credit Report Limit Reasons for Distributor Demise Net Worth & Working Capital Account Filings Number of Years Trading Court Judgments (CCJ’s) Register of Outstanding Invoices Credit Scores (and Credit Limits) Directors Linked Companies Change of Directors News and Industry Knowledge Evolution Key Failure Indicators – A Single Page Summary 2013 Case Histories Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It The Promo Warehouse Limited Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited The Definition of Bravado Directors with a History Challenges Faced Trading Directors with Multiple Histories/Concerns Trading Directors with a single History/Concern Non‐Trading Directors with History/Concerns The Most Shameful Director of All? 70 New and Recently Formed Distributors 74 78 80 Some Distributors You Can Be More Positive About How You Can Help us and other Suppliers Going Forward How You Can Help Yourself 82 84 A Summary of Our Findings KEY – Colour coding Black type is the standard narrative. Red type is used to highlight areas of concern and/or detrimental information, as applicable. Text is emboldened when appropriate to add emphasis. Blue type is used to indicate an invitation to you, the promotional goods suppliers, to aid us if you can by providing additional information to help expand our research and fill in some historic gaps beyond our knowledge. This will help both you and other suppliers in the long run, so please do get involved. 2
INTRODUCTION Welcome to the first edition of the AccountAssyst Distributor Failure Analysis document. This document provides an analysis of failed distributors over several years and has been prepared especially for suppliers within the promotional goods industry. It is based on the most recent distributor failure data available within the sector and has been produced with the aim of providing promotional good suppliers with the key information required to avoid distributor failures in the future. It is specifically designed to help promotional goods suppliers avoid future distributor failures by learning the lessons of previous demises, and so avoid unnecessary bad debt write‐offs.
We are aware that there are probably a small number of distributor failures that have escaped our attention but we have little doubt that the negative trends highlighted in this document will be generally synonymous with distributor failure, both historically and in the future. After reading this document you will hopefully recognise that all promotional goods suppliers have an extremely important part to play in ridding the industry of the bad debt experiences that result from distributor failures. It is our intention to keep updating this document and the recommendations arising periodically so that any evolutionary trends can also be factored in. As well as providing an analysis of historical distributor failures, this document will also recommend a number of robust, proven and recommended administrative processes that will reduce the exposure of suppliers to future failed or failing distributors. Implementations of these processes will result in promotional goods suppliers being a far stronger position to avoid the impact of such failures. The merits of both the BPMA AccountAssyst and BPMA credit management systems (including the Register of Outstanding Invoices) have been highlighted accordingly, as we believe strongly that these systems will provide the protection required. The main content of this document is based on facts. Inevitably, it is sometimes necessary to interpret those facts and in turn pass opinion on the same. Where this is the case, any opinions expressed are ours alone. Accordingly, should you read something that you believe is not entirely accurate or requires addressing in some other way, please email us with your thoughts and input – [email protected]. We are happy to receive feedback, both good and bad. Indeed, we may well reference it within subsequent document releases if deemed appropriate. Although this document is addressed in the main to promotional goods suppliers, we would welcome it being read and considered by both suppliers and distributors as we believe that there are common‐sense lessons for both included within. 3
The Main Analysis 4
In this chapter, we simply look at the plain facts surrounding distributor failure. Many of the observations provided have been obtained from retrospective studies of failed distributors over a period of several years. The aim of this section is to provide suppliers with an understanding of the impact of a failing distributor business, and to highlight the tools that can be used to protect against such a scenario. Primarily, this is a statistical guide to which we have added our own thoughts and observations based on our considerable experience of credit management in general and our relatively short‐term knowledge of the promotional goods sector. Trends can be strong indicators when deciding whether and how much credit you should offer to any distributor. Some distributors with a seemingly modest profile and credit rating are far safer bets than others who supposedly have substantially better businesses. Here’s an interesting statistic: 93% of failed distributors had a Recommended Credit Report Limit of £500 or less at the time of their demise. and only 60% were actually £NIL at the date of demise. The 7% exceptions ranged between £1,000 and £10,000 limits. A Recommended Credit Report Limit is of course fundamentally flawed by the simple fact that it is subjective ‐ the limit generated is based almost exclusively on the latest accounts filed at Companies House, which can be up to 18 months out of date on the date they are filed. Even as the information becomes available it is already out of date and provides no indication of what is actually going on today. Has the distributor gained or lost a major contract in the last 12‐18 months? This type of information will not be reflected in a previous accounting period and is highly unlikely to be carried by any credit reporting facility either now or in the future. Additionally, accounts can be manipulated from year to year, dependent upon the practices of the accountant assigned to the task. The bottom line is that suppliers who solely base their decisions to extend credit on whether or not a distributor has a reasonable credit rating are doing so on unreliable and out of date information. Unfortunately, this is almost precisely what everybody currently does do!!! Highest Lifetime/Recent Credit Rating Limit (up to 10 years) Of the distributor failures analysed, only 13% had never achieved a better rating than £NIL in the last 10 years. Only 23% however had ever bettered £2,000 at any stage within the last 10 years or their lifetime (as applicable). 76% had never elevated above £1,000 at any point. The last of these three findings is the most significant, and this statistic forms the first of our Key Failure Indicators referenced throughout this document. 5
The truth is that the promotional goods industry is a world in which the supplier needs the distributor and the distributor needs the supplier. The distributor also needs the end user as much as the supplier. It pays all to co‐operate of course, but strong, prompt paying distributors are clearly better for the supplier, as prompt paying end users are better for the distributor. Many of the larger distributors often insist on 60‐day terms. This is not a criticism; they are often just passing on the terms that may be imposed on them by sizeable end users. What is not acceptable is agreeing to 30‐day terms and then paying a supplier on 60 day terms without prior warning or agreement. The dilemma faced by the distributor who has a tardy paying end user is how they fund matters to keep their supplier happy. Those more established and responsible distributors with adequate funding resource will simply carry the cash flow on their ledger, gradually build up a strong profitable vibrant business and pay to terms. In doing so, they accept the correct legal position that they have been supplied on 30‐day terms and their problems in getting any payment from an end user are exactly that i.e. a distributor's problem. If a distributor is of modest size and standing, with say a credit limit of £1,000 or less in their lifetime, it essentially means that they are unable, unwilling or incapable of leaving resource within the business. Consequently, they are too weak to cope with adversity. There is the exception, of course, when a distributor chooses to withdraw funding from the business for beneficial taxation reasons, but ultimately the outcome is the same...the business itself is left devoid of cash and is weakened as a result. Its credit reporting limit will never grow meaningfully as a consequence. Even the most honourable and organised small distributor with such a weak business profile can make the mistake of becoming over exposed to an established customer. These failed end users can even be household names and because the distributor’s business is so reliant on this sizeable customer they are blinded to the potential problem. Following a significant end user write off, a distributor is forced to decide whether to start up again with a clean slate (and pay off those personal bills) or to carry debt forward for perhaps many years to come. It is highly likely that the decision taken will be to close down and start afresh. Integrity and reputation dictates that you should carry on and ‘take your medicine’, but financial common sense and self‐preservation suggests otherwise when you run a small to medium‐sized business. Quite frankly, it is the make‐up of the industry that provides this 'get out of jail card' for distributors. A modest credit reporting limit reflects a business of modest stability, however we may dress it up (see comments on Buyking Ltd T/as We Brand It later on within this document). This forms the basis of our second Key Failure Indicator. Reasons for distributor demise Formal Insolvency – 53% (Liquidation/Receivership/Administration) Company Dissolved – 43% Corporate Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) – 4% (businesses continue to trade) 6
At first glance, this is as expected, but in fact there is a worrying trend towards dissolution in more recent times (during 2012/2013 in particular). Dissolution is when a company simply ceases to trade without formally winding up its affairs, even though it may be insolvent. Of the 43% dissolutions identified within this analysis, each and every one has been allowed to be dissolved with unpaid monies outstanding to suppliers – hence the reason they make this list. There are of course several others that have closed down and cleared their creditors in full so it can often be difficult to distinguish between the two (unless you have access to something such as the invaluable Register of Outstanding Invoices, but more on this later). 80% of distributor failures had Negative Net Worth/Working Capital as at the date of their demise Again, not really a surprise. It is inevitable that an insolvent business is in this state at the point of its demise. That is one of the reasons that it cannot continue to trade. Perhaps of far greater significance however... 83% had Negative Net Worth/Working Capital at some point during the three years prior to their demise Wow ! Allied to a modest credit limit, what a true indicator this really is. Of course, a company that is running out of cash year on year will eventually run out of options and will be forced to either close down or do something to save themselves from getting in deeper trouble. (see the 2013 Chapter on Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It, The Promo Warehouse Limited and Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited later on). This is of course more significant with a declining year on year Negative Net Worth/Working Capital trend – if for example a company had a negative overall picture three years ago but is improving its position year on year, the trend may well be in the right direction so any concern may readily be disregarded. Indeed it may even be treated as a good sign should the profile have moved progressively into positive Net Worth/Working Capital on the most recent accounts filed at Companies House. This whole section being is red and bold and is our third Key Failure Indicator. Please take note. 76% of distributor failures had their accounts fully up to date as at the date of their demise Hmmm...In truth we didn't quite expect to find this; somehow we had pre‐conceived the idea that a fair number of directors of failing companies were unlikely to really care. Having thought about matters a little more, however, perhaps the latest Companies Act is having some effect here, with the appointed directors fearing that they could be held personally liable for the records of the business not being conducted in a timely, accurate and professional manner. Again, perhaps a more significant warning of the potential imminent failure of a business comes through a secondary issue surrounding the filing of documents at Companies House... 57% of failed distributor businesses had previous late filings of some description in the run‐ up to their demise 7
Now this is a little more interesting. Not only does it portray a somewhat lax approach to their obligations by the directors of the company but it arguably also implies that they are far too busy trying to do other things, such as perhaps saving their ailing business, to bother with governmental requirements. Whether due to inefficiency, incompetence or blatant disregard, the statistic is clear. Nearly two out of three distributor business failures were late in filing some documents at some point prior to their demise...a warning sign if ever there was one and our fourth Key Failure Indicator identified. The Number of Years Trading for failed distributors Breakdown one: Breakdown Two: 0‐1 years 1‐2 years 2‐4 years 4‐6 years 7 years + ‐ 0% distributor failures ‐ 13% distributor failures ‐ 23% distributor failures ‐ 13 distributor failures ‐ 51% distributor failures 0‐5 years 5‐10 years 10 years + ‐ 33.33% distributor failures ‐ 33.33% distributor failures ‐ 33.33% distributor failures What is surprising about these statistics is that there is seemingly no obvious trend. We would have expected this to be top heavy with earlier failures, but as Breakdown One above indicates, this is not necessarily the case. In fact, breakdown two almost symmetrically disproves any such theory. The age of the distributor business does not seem to indicate impending failure ‐ established or not, there are clearly other far more significant factors. So why should suppliers be very mindful of this? It is natural to think ‘We have supplied this business for many years and they have always previously paid us so let’s just carry on.’ We must disregard this thought process though and avoid complacency. Concentrate solely on the 'facts of failure' and key failure indicators referred to within this document instead! Only 46% of distributor failures had Court Judgments recorded against them Again a little surprising; we did think this count would be a little higher. Once more, however, this leads to a far more significant side‐issue indicator: In every single case in which a judgment was recorded against a failed distributor, the same is pre‐dated by both negative Net Worth and/or Shareholders Funds information on previously filed accounts! This is a 100% statistic, so please take note. Court Judgment information is just too late when it really matters. No doubt overdue chasing actions are taking place when a distributor is not paying, but the court process is so antiquated and ‘pro‐debtor’ that it allows people to employ delaying tactics. The failing distributor may only drop their guard when they simply don't care any more and so Judgment(s) are brought around the time of, or shortly after, their demise...but generally not before. 8
Conclusion ‐ Court judgments are simply an indicator that the horse has long already bolted! Don't supply anybody on credit that has any judgments against them, of course, but don’t rely on them as the only indicator if you really want to avoid those write‐offs. 76% had entries on the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) ‐ (694 overdue invoice entries) Key Failure Indicator Number 4. It did very much please us when we saw this statistic as it essentially means that we are already beginning to pick up on failing and rogue distributors through this medium, despite being relatively fresh to the industry. In our professional opinion, it is now highly significant that we are doing so. Frankly, it is way ahead of any similar resource that we can find out there...and, more importantly, it has been focused on the supplier/distributor relationship for the last three to four years now, so is of clear industry relevance and use for you, both immediately and more importantly going forward as it grows in numbers. For those of you who don't quite understand what the Register of Outstanding Invoices is, here's a snapshot: We partner with solicitors and debt collection agencies that provide late payment data to the Register when they send out a demand letter for overdue monies. The debtor is given a period of time to pay before their entry is placed on the Register and notified to all parties (by email) that have recorded with BPMA AccountAssyst that they wish to receive such early warning data e.g. other suppliers of the distributor. It is then up to the supplier that has received an early warning that another industry supplier has not been paid to decide whether to, accelerate their credit control, reduce their credit limit for the distributor in question, or even just put the distributor on stop. A distributor that does not pay a demand letter of this nature is identifying themselves as “can't pay” rather than a “won't pay” or "we're just juggling our cash flow". (There is a fair‐play policy in place for any contested/disputed invoices – please visit www.outstandinginvoices.com for more information on this). How can you use the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) to help you collect accounts and therefore contribute to the content? Simply use one of the approved ROSI partners. Direct Route Collections Limited are the currently approved BPMA resource that can help you with this ‐ they offer zero cost debt collection on all debts of £3,000 or less and just 2% subsidised debt collection on all debts of greater value. We feel that this is a very good deal. Ideally, you should be instructing overdue debts to be collected at between 60 and 90 days overdue, at the very latest. You can contact Direct Route Collections on 01274 223190. You do not need to be a BPMA Member to utilise the zero cost debt collection service, but there may be a joining fee associated with partnering with Direct Route if you are not (BPMA Members are awarded a membership benefit of a complimentary sign up). 9
Please do not ignore this facility ‐ it is in place not only to help you collect overdue monies but also so that you can warn other industry suppliers of the difficulties you may be having with any given distributor’s tardy payment activities. In turn, you can join AccountAssyst to receive early warnings to prevent you from getting into such issues on matters reported into the system by other suppliers. In short, it is a club that you should both be contributing to and also deriving benefit from. How can you quickly get access to the data held on the Register of Outstanding Invoices in order that you receive alerts when a distributor is not paying other suppliers? Just contact Mike Collins on 0845 680 1891 or alternatively you can email [email protected]. You will need a relationship with AccountAssyst that includes the ROSI Monitor service activated on all your customers. The good news is that this is a complimentary service within any BPMA AccountAssyst package – again non BPMA Members may access this service on less favourable rates. Credit Scores and Credit Limits It is our considered view that the combination of the credit limit and score given by the reporting companies is an effective representation of the financial strength of the company based upon the accounts filed. It is well documented previously in this report that basing financial decisions solely on the credit limit and score is inherently flawed as it is not a representation of the status of the company at the current point in time. That said, having analysed the credit score in particular, we believe that it is an excellent guide that can be used to identify the companies in the sector at high risk of failure. The credit limit tends to be purely a representation of the balance sheet of the company. If the company has a negative net worth or shareholders funds, then in normal circumstances the credit limit will be given as zero or a nominal limit of £500. It is worth noting that even a new business without any history of filing annual accounts will ordinarily be given a nominal limit of £500 and also usually a credit score of around 50. Consequently, a credit limit of £500 or less must always be treated with caution. The credit score however is generally a simple representation of the measure of risk associated with a company. The credit score bands differ between reporting agencies but generally fit the model: 71‐100: Good credit worthiness 51‐70: Credit worthy 36‐50: Caution ‐ Moderate risk potential 0‐35: Caution ‐ High risk potential No Rating: Financial Statements too old / Liquidated / Dissolved / Petition filed As such a company with a credit score of 50 or under should be treated with utmost caution regardless of the actual credit limit. This area is the 5th and final Key Failure Indicator. 10
A company with a credit limit of £500 or less but with a high credit score (60+) can be viewed with a degree of confidence with regards its perceived creditworthiness. It could be the company has been trading successfully for a period of time and that no monies are left on the balance sheet or that the company has shown steady progress with regards to profitability since its inception. A company with a credit limit of £500 or less and with a credit score of 50 or less should be treated with the highest level of caution. In summary the credit reporting companies’ method of allocating a business both a credit limit and score is an effective representation of the annual accounts filed, and this information is of use as a guide to predicting the chances of business failure, although we must re‐iterate that this information is always out of date. So how does this information translate to business failures within the sector? 100% of failed distributor companies analysed had a credit score of 50 or less at some point in the previous 3 years before failure. This is a pretty damning statistic. Given that 76% of failed distributors had a negative net worth or shareholder funds in the last 3 years, it is consistent that those companies should also have a credit score of 50 or less at the date of their demise. What is more interesting is that the 24% of distributors that didn’t fail on this statistic all had a credit score of 50 or less in the previous 3 years. It is no surprise that companies who exhibit behaviours such as late filing of accounts, receiving county court judgments and negative financial figures will have a low credit score at some point and so this can be taken as a valid indicator of a higher chance of failure due to insolvency. The actual variation in credit score is also a factor. If a distributor currently has a good credit score and credit limit but has had recent variations in terms of a low credit score, then it needs to be treated with more caution than a company that has the same credit limit and score consistently over the last few years. Businesses who have good financials don’t obtain county court judgments. They file their accounts in good time every year and show a consistency in their behaviour that is a hallmark of their good credit standing and in turn a well‐run business. The key is not to look at the credit score and limit as at today but to consider also the historical credit limit and score in order to establish whether it has been consistent. More than 96% of Companies had a credit score of 55 or less at the time of failure This is further evidence of the importance of the credit score when assessing credit worthiness. The current credit score is effectively a number between 1 and 100 based primarily upon the last accounts filed. Our findings show that if this number is 55 or less then generally they should be treated with caution. As explained above, a new company is usually provided with a nominal score of 50 when it is initially registered. This initial score of 50 is important as it will change on the basis of 11
subsequent accounts filed. If a company files accounts with negative financials then it is probably going to reduce the credit score below 50 or certainly not raise it by much. Therefore, a business with a credit score of 55 or less has either never filed accounts or has filed accounts with some element of negative information. It is also worth noting that the credit reporting companies look to downgrade a credit score of a business not only if they are late in filing annual accounts but also if they haven’t filed their accounts up to 2 weeks before the filing deadline. On first appearance this may seem harsh but the assumption is that statistically many companies who haven’t filed their accounts 2 weeks before the deadline will not file their accounts at all. Also it can be argued that companies who are filing in the last 2 weeks before deadline are not properly organised and are not allowing any leeway for unforeseen issues, errors or delays with the filing of their accounts. The lesson for all companies therefore is file accounts at least 2 weeks in advance of the filing deadline to avoid ‘an advance negative reaction’ by the credit reporting companies. One company that did pass that failure statistic is Tradewinds Merchandising Company Ltd, which actually had a credit score of 91 at the time of its failure. Interestingly however the credit scores of the other companies linked to the Directors of the business had challenges with their credit score, and we will now look at this topic. Directors linked companies The previous conduct of Directors is an obvious pointer as to how they might conduct themselves with regards to the business that you are looking into. If the Directors have a string of insolvent companies or companies with low credit scores behind them, then this should be taken into account when supplying credit to other companies linked to the same Directors (note there is a full and lengthy chapter dedicated to this type of activity later on within this document). Let’s look more closely at Tradewinds Merchandising Company Ltd, the company that failed with a credit score of 91. Of the 15 Directorships linked to the Directors, 12 of the credit scores were listed as ‘Suspended’. So it should have been no surprise that Tradewinds Merchandising Company Ltd failed as a business...the directors just continued with their prior business trend activities. Another example is that of Buyking Ltd T/as We Brand It. The sole director of this business is currently linked to 9 other businesses that also have credit scores of less than 50. It is clear from this that the manner in which this Director runs all his business interests suggests a greater risk of insolvency. Particular attention should be given to linked directorships of companies that have a similar name, have a similar SIC code or appear to be in a similar industry. If an individual is constantly running companies that become insolvent and then starting again in the same industry, this pattern is likely to keep repeating itself. The reporting companies do not seem to make any link between the credit scores of director linked companies. As such the analysis of whether the linked companies provide a pointer to the company you are looking at effectively needs to be done manually. It is worth noting that BPMA AccountAssyst are currently developing their systems to provide more automated guidance on this. 12
More leeway should be given, however, if the director’s linked companies appear to be spread across different industries. In these circumstances it is more likely the director is entrepreneurial in nature and has an interest in different businesses rather than a “professional debtor” who repeatedly establishes new legal entities in order to leave behind liabilities to creditors. If a director’s portfolio of companies and profile is generally unblemished and strong then it is less likely that he or she is going to tarnish their reputation by failing a company for personal gain. The constant creation of phoenix companies in the same industry, whereby the business effectively restarts the next day with no liabilities, is all too commonplace. Even though it is tantamount to fraud, proving this is very difficult and the government even gave the green light recently for pre packed administration arrangements to continue in their current format. It is very much a case of ‘let the seller beware’ when supplying on credit and that is why having a service such as AccountAssyst on your side is important in this regard. The actual date of the incorporation of any linked companies is also very relevant. A recently formed limited company by a director of a failing business often indicates that they are looking to transfer the assets, goodwill or customer base of the current limited company to the new legal entity, leaving the liabilities behind. Another tactic that is sometimes employed is that the directors will propose a Corporate Voluntary Arrangement (“CVA”). They set up a new limited company that can be used in the event the CVA is rejected by creditors or the CVA fails at some point after creditor approval. Even more obvious are situations whereby a failing company with the name ABC Ltd incorporates a new company with the name ABC (UK) Ltd or similar. Linking directors to different companies is not an exact science. Companies House does not always make the connection that individuals with different directorships are often the same person. Directors who conduct themselves as so‐called “professional debtors” will often go out of their way to use different variations of the same name or even deliberately misspell their name in order that the links between their directorships cannot be made (see the Bravado chapter that follows later within this document). Even more damning is the director with a string of insolvent businesses behind them and who may even be disqualified, using their spouse or other family members to front the directorship of the business. An unrelated partner with a different surname is nigh on impossible to spot in advance. You should not simply assume that because Companies House or the credit reporting companies have not made a link that no such link exists. AccountAssyst are always developing new ways to offer increased protection to our clients. We are constantly looking at how we can improve our systems to deal with such circumstances, such as reviewing the names of individuals linked to a particular service address. Change of Directors Another potential risk of business failure is a change within the directors or shareholdings of a business. A business can be running successfully for many years with good financial strength but if the director that is departing is crucial to the smooth running of the business, their departure could result in the business encountering financial difficulty. Of course, the director could be replaced by someone who is equally able or even better, but it is worth noting that the risk of financial instability does exist if there is a change in directorships or shareholding within a business. 13
This situation is more acute the fewer number of Directors within a distributor business. For example, if one of three directors leaves a business, the risk to that business is higher than for a business has a five or more directorships. Equally the shareholding percentage (if any) of the departing director should be considered. News & Industry Knowledge The majority of analysis within this document is based upon information gleaned from credit reports as well as the more up to date information from the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI). However, these are not the only sources of business information available. Sometimes the media or the industry will become aware of businesses that may be in financial difficulty. The source of this information is often from the employees of a business itself. It can be the case that rumour is exactly that, and should not be taken too seriously; however, quite often there is an element of truth involved. Even though it is often the case that a business failure is preceded by many of the pointers in this document, sometimes there is no publicly available negative information. The business may, though, be informing their workers of the intention to close the business, for example if the decision has been made by an overseas holding company to cease operations in the UK. A simple Google search of news regarding a business can lead to industry comment and details with regards to the potential failure of a business. Another “soft pointer” we would advise to use is an element of instinct and common sense when supplying credit. In the past, companies have applied for credit on a fraudulent basis using another company’s details in order to facilitate this. Can you be 100% certain that the order is from the party you think it is? A large order arriving out of the blue and completely outside of the normal trading pattern of business from a new customer might be too good to be true. Ask yourself why this new customer decided to use you and consider whether there is anything else that doesn’t quite add up with the order? Sometimes asking “was this just too easy?” can be a telling clue in itself. Evolution At AccountAssyst we are constantly striving to improve our systems in order to help prevent write offs for our clients. Accordingly, the research within this document is not a final analysis. As you will see mentioned repeatedly during this document, we would be encouraged to hear from any companies who have dealt with customers on credit that have turned into write offs. In the majority of cases there will have been an indicator that the business was in trouble.If that isn’t the case and a company has still gone to the wall despite passing every one of the trends in this document, we would be very interested to hear about this. It may be that with your help we can identify other key distributor failure trends. Email [email protected]. From an analysis perspective such cases are of particular interest. We can review the reasons that the business failed and identify any lessons that can be learned that can help improve and evolve our systems going forward. Equally important is if you as either a supplier or distributor, or indeed one of your customers, fall down on the trends in this document but you believe that the business is in fact successful and thriving with little chance of failure, then please do let us know. It could be that the information you provide us with can further help identify what differentiates you from a business that has a high chance of failure. Email [email protected]. 14
Key Failure Indicators A Single Page Summary 15
KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ‐ A SINGLE PAGE SUMMARY Please note this page is derived from a full report on distributor failures within the promotional goods industry and should be considered in conjunction with the same ‐ if you are reading this page in isolation you can obtain a full copy by emailing [email protected]. It is strongly recommended that you read the full document and the rationale behind it before considering the information below in isolation. The five Key Failure Indicators are emboldened in red. 1. Do not make credit decisions based solely on flawed outdated Credit Report Limits. 2. Look at the lifetime Credit reporting Limit of a distributor ‐ if it has never been greater than £1000 this is very negatively significant (closely followed by never greater than £2000). 3. Focus closely on your exposure to any company that has a declining or constant Negative Net Worth/Shareholders Funds trend during the previous 3 years ‐ they are a risk in the highest category. 4. Scrutinise the filing history of distributors ‐ late filings at any point in the previous 5 years is a bad sign. 5. The number of years trading of the distributor is irrelevant. 6. Remember that an imminently failing distributor probably does not yet have a court judgment recorded against them. If they do have a judgment then obviously do not supply on credit, but look to other indicators to make ensure that you are not the first party entering judgment against them. 7. Make sure you know whether the distributor has entries on the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) at all times ‐ any entry is negative, with more recent ones being most significant. New Distributor customer ‐ why do they really want an account with you? Is it because they are on stop elsewhere and/or on ROSI? Find out before you have a problem. 8. A credit score of 50 or less at some point in the previous 3 years is highly significant. 100% of failed distributors analysed met this statistic. More than 95% had a credit score of 55 or less at the actual time of their demise. Do not ignore this – a credit score is far more insightful than you might imagine as it is made up of a number of factors that reflect the true worth of combined analysis, positive or negative. TOP TIP ‐ Establish systems to monitor all distributors and highlight those at 'high‐risk' using the above key indicators. Alternatively simply get in touch with the BPMA AccountAssyst and have it all done automatically for you! Other ‘Common Sense’ things to look out for: Resignation of directors can generally only weaken a business. The fewer directors in a business, the more acute the risk as the more reliant the business is on the performance of those individuals. This is particularly prominent in promotional goods distributors in which the directors are very often also the primary sales personnel. Directors linked companies and previous conduct of directors. There is an old Chinese proverb that says that if something happens once it may well happen again but if something happens twice then it will definitely happen again. Accordingly if a director was involved in one or more failed distributor businesses are they likely to change their ways or continue making the same mistakes that got them into trouble in the first place? Decide on a case by case basis. You know the individuals concerned – are they too sales orientated, suspiciously untrustworthy or just simply incompetent? Check out their previous directorships to ascertain why they are no longer there and/or whether these companies failed due to insolvency. Who else knows them or has dealt with them previously? Check the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) for entries. If somebody does not pay you then please contribute to it also by using one of the approved solicitors or debt collection agencies within 90 days of invoice date. (The BPMA approved debt collection agency, Direct Route Collections, offers zero % collections on all debts up to £3000). Speak to other suppliers or simply type their name into Google to determine whether there are any news extracts that you should be aware of. Always do this BEFORE you supply and not afterwards, when it can be too late. 16
2013 Case Histories 17
CASE HISTORIES So how many key failure indicators did each of the distributor businesses analysed fail (in percentage terms)? 53% failed all five A massive 80% failed four or more 100% failed at least three of the five indicators identified. So let’s have a look at some of the failures of early 2013 in more detail to see what, if anything, can be gleaned: Buyking Ltd T/as We Brand It ‐ CVA April/May 2013 Company Number 05060689 This is the obvious place to start given it is one of the most thorny recent industry topics. A number of competitor distributors believe that internet driven distributors are reducing industry margins in general. Whether this be true or not, a high profile distributor failure of this nature does invite very many varied and critical views from suppliers and distributors alike. At the time of writing, we are awaiting the final outcome and approval of the CVA proposal to creditors so it is difficult to comment with anything other than reason and impartiality based upon the facts. Turning therefore to the Key Summary Indicators of Failure: We have heard more than one supplier comment that they did not see this coming at all as they had received numerous payments in the run up to the Insolvency (a Corporate Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) is definitely an Insolvency). As identified in our publications, The 7 Deadly Sins of Credit Management, "Complacency" of this nature is one of the sins highlighted. Please contact [email protected] if you would like a copy of this sending to you. So, were the signs there? Key Failure Indicator 2 ‐ the lifetime highest credit reporting rating This may well depend upon where you obtained your credit report from. This only serves to amplify the point made in Key Summary Indicator 1 that you should not base your credit exposure decisions solely on credit reporting limits. Creditsafe, for example, suggested a limit ranging from £NIL to £1500 in the run up to the demise, with it hitting the highest level of £1500 for the sole time on 07/13/13. Prior to that point however it had ranged between £0 and £1000 between April 2011 and March 2013. Whereas Dun & Bradstreet remained constant in their view of Buyking Ltd T/as We Brand It with a credit reporting limit of £NIL from 2007 right through until the announcement of the CVA. 18
We could have analysed several other reporting sources and come to the same conclusion, i.e. that We Brand It were never at any stage above weak status as far as credit reporting limits were concerned. In summary, Buyking limited T/as We Brand It clearly failed the overall standard of Key Failure Indicator 2. The signs were there that they were high risk in this particular area. Key Failure Indicator 3 ‐ Negative Net Worth/Shareholders Funds Red and in brackets indicates a negative. Accounts to 31/03/08 Accounts to 31/03/09 Accounts to 31/03/10 Accounts to 31/03/11 Accounts to 31/03/12 Net Worth (134,212) (134,217) (193,722) (258,678) (256,846) Working Capital (138,642) (115,004) (116,009) (266,975) (260,315) * Combined (272,854) (249,221) (309,731) (525,653) (517,161) * In combining these figures we acknowledge that there is a degree of overlap between Net Worth and Working Capital. Such a combination however has the ability of amplifying a problem to provide a clearer indication that something is amiss, whilst also stopping any masking by the transferring of figures from one section to another in suspect accounting manoeuvres. As can be seen in the table above, We Brand It fails the indicator spectacularly on numerous occasions with a much accelerated backwards trend from 2010 onwards. Conclusion ‐ Buyking limited T/as We Brand It clearly failed the overall standard of Key Failure Indicator 3. The signs were there and extremely pronounced. Key Failure Indicator 4 ‐ late filing history Buyking Limited T/as We Brand it were late in filing both their accounts for the period ending 31/03/2011 and 31/03/2012. These are in fact the very last two years of trading accounts filed prior to the CVA proposals now in the hands of creditors. In fairness, in both cases the late filing situation was remedied fairly quickly but the facts are the facts, so if you are in any doubt as to why this might be significant please read again the relevant section previously highlighted within this document. Conclusion ‐ Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It failed the overall standard of Key Failure indicator 4 and re‐enforced their high risk status in doing so. Key Failure Indicators 5 & 6 The company was incorporated in 2004. This is irrelevant as an indicator of failure, but can contribute to feelings of complacency amongst suppliers. Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It had no court judgments recorded against it at the time of the announcement of the CVA. Key Failure Indicator 7 ‐ Entries on the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) There were no entries on ROSI and this is probably down to the need for continued dealings post CVA. 19
Any supplier who asked our opinion about We Brand It over the last couple of years would have been advised that we considered them to be high risk in the absence of any new funding investment or major contracts, and thus exposure should be limited. Why? Other than the results of The Key Failure Indicators above, there were also a number of suppliers that regularly needed to chase We Brand It for overdue monies, both internally and with the assistance of the BPMA AccountAssyst Credit Control facility. The rumblings did not go unnoticed and when a sizeable name just keeps cropping up and being questioned, alarm bells start ringing. Over and above this general feeling of unease, the BPMA themselves actually withdrew Charter Status from BuyKing Ltd T/as We Brand It during late 2011/early 2012. This was primarily due to the financial strength, or lack of it, to support the requirements of Charter Status. In hindsight this was a clear indication and message to suppliers that all was not well. Key Failure Indicator 8 – Credit Score Creditsafe ‐ Highest 3 year Credit Score 44 (03/04/2012) Lowest 3 year Credit Score 12 (22/12/2012) Credit Score at demise 41 DnB ‐ Highest 3 year Credit Score 32 (31/03/2011) Lowest 3 year Credit Score 17 (31/03/2010) Credit Score at demise 28 Just a reminder about Key Failure Indicator 8:‐ “8. A credit score of 50 or less at some point in the previous 3 years is highly detrimentally significant. 100% of failed distributors analysed met this statistic. More than 95% had a credit score of 55 or less at the actual time of their demise. Do not ignore this… “ Conclusion – Buyking Ltd T/as We Brand It failed this indicator spectacularly. OVERALL CONCLUSION ‐ THIS FORMER DISTRIBUTOR MATCHED FOUR OUT OF FIVE OF THE KEY FAILURE INDICATORS FROM JULY 2012 ONWARDS PRIOR TO ITS CVA NOTIFICATION TO CREDITORS APRIL 2013. And now for a little bit of a surprise – we would like to give the directors of We Brand It a little bit of credit (not literally though!!) in one or two areas, so, if you are a supplier who has lost monies on We Brand It, please therefore bear the following in mind also: How long have they traded with you since their inception in 2004? How much money have you made since you started trading with them? Does your overall profit during that period substantially offset the immediate loss now facing you? Is your biggest loss not the cash you are having to write‐off on the CVA shortfall, but actually the potential loss of future business and profit from such an active and prominent distributor? Please bear in mind that it might have been easier for the We Brand It directors to simply enter into another form of Insolvency other than a Corporate Voluntary Arrangement, say 20
Administration, Liquidation or Receivership when faced with a failing business. Any of these alternatives would likely have resulted in creditors receiving £NIL pence in the £ compared with a more favourable settlement in the soon to be formalised CVA. By entering into a CVA as opposed to almost any other form of Insolvency, the directors of Buyking Limited T/as We Brand are potentially treating creditors more fairly. At the time of writing, the proposals from Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It are still in process. The offer that is close to formal approval by Creditors is seemingly 39.3 pence in the £ spread over a period of 5 years – this is perhaps a little short of what most suppliers would like. It is not for us to comment on whether this figure is reasonable or not, but the general feeling seems to be that if this had been increased to more than 50p in the £ then it would have been a good deal more palatable for all creditors. However, many CVAs fail during their lifetime, ultimately forcing the company into liquidation or similar at a later point. So whatever the proposals to creditors, they must be sustainable for the longer term benefit of full realisation. It seems that the directors of Buyking Ltd T/as We Brand It have in recent times formed a number of new companies. Other current directorship appointments and company formation dates therefore are as follows: Company Name Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It Trade Promotions Ltd Pushclean UK Limited Last Minute Merchandise Ltd Technology Merchandising Ltd KSS Property Management Ltd Reg. Number 05060689 06195901 08368157 08453263 08455199 08500696 Incorporated 02/03/2004 02/04/2007 21/01/2013 20/03/2013 21/03/2013 23/04/2013 Credit Score 28 48 50* 50* 50* 50* * Please note that this particular starting Credit Score of 50 is standard for all new company formations until the first set of trading accounts are filed. Accordingly it can be misleading and thus given the directors “previous history” it must be treated with utmost caution. Again we cannot comment on whether these are back up plans of some sort should the recently approved CVA proposals of Buyking Ltd T/as We Brand It (with creditor amendments) ultimately fail during the term of the arrangement. Our research identified no previous detrimental history with regards to the conduct of current directors of Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It prior to the financial difficulties experienced by the company itself over a prolonged period prior to its actual demise. On further inspection of the previous directors of Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It, we did however pick up on an unrelated issue pertaining to a formally resigned director, namely Mr Sanjay Bhalla, also known as Sanjay Singh Bhalla, also known as Sanjay Bhalla Singh (date of birth 21/02/1977). It seems that Mr Sanjay Singh Bhalla severed his relationships with Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It and also Trade Promotions Limited on 16/11/2007 (date of resignation). Accordingly Mr Bhalla cannot realistically be assigned any responsibility for the recent demise of We Brand It. Nevertheless the 3 different filing names at Companies House under this particular individual’s date of birth led to another industry distributor concern: The Promotions Company (Europe) Limited, with named appointed director Sanjay Singh Bhalla (DOB 21/02/1977), is currently itself the subject of a Company Voluntary Arrangement (“CVA”). 21
It has been deemed as Insolvent and suppliers/creditors have accepted a reduced sum in the £ and/or instalments over a prolonged period of time. We do not yet have details on file of this and so would appreciate information from any supplier that is regrettably a part of this CVA. Email [email protected] if you can help with information please. Of additional concern is the recent company formation by Mr Sanjay Bhalla (DOB 21/02/1977) of P4 Outsourcing Limited (company registration number 08530850). We cannot establish at this point whether this company is destined to operate as a distributor within the promotional goods sector but we trust that you will know what to do with any credit applications that you may receive from it! There is a suspicion that Mr Bhalla may file variations of his name at Companies House deliberately and indeed at different business accommodation addresses in order to make it difficult to link him with the previously failed businesses. The following table illustrates all of the companies we have thus far linked with Mr Bhalla under his various names, including their current status: Company Name Company Status South Wales Property Investments Ltd Dissolved – questionable conduct? The Small and Medium Enterprise Dissolved Company Ltd Technical Plastics Finishing Ltd Liquidation 28/03/2005 Tripoint Holdings Ltd Dissolved The Promotions Company (Europe) CVA ‐ £19K+ of CCJ’s Ltd P4 Outsourcing Ltd LIVE No accounts filed Resigned Appointments Trade Promotions Ltd Trading Buyking Ltd t/as We Brand It Trading Incorporated 20/05/2002 Credit Score 0 20/07/2002 0 03/09/2002 0 25/09/2003 10/12/2007 0 0 15/05/2013 02/04/2007 02/03/2004 50* 48 28 * Please note that this particular starting Credit Score of 50 is standard for all new company formations until the first set of trading accounts are filed. Accordingly it can be misleading and given the director’s previous history it should be treated with utmost caution. The Total Value of write‐offs suffered by BPMA AccountAssyst subscribers on Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It creditors list was just £4600 out of £620,000!!! We are pleased that so many of our clients mitigated their exposure and indeed in most cases successfully managed to dodge the bullet entirely. 22
The Promo Warehouse Limited ‐ Liquidation March/April 2013 Company Number 03389234 Our second case history is included because of its prominence as a failing distributor in recent times. Due to the relative company size and write‐off suffered by suppliers, we will not spend quite the same amount of time on supporting comment, however. Does it fail the trends in the same way? Well, let’s see... Key Failure Indicator 2 ‐ the lifetime highest credit reporting rating Creditsafe reporting limit ‐ between £NIL and £1000 March 2011 to March 2013. Dun and Bradstreet ‐ £500 in 2008 but £NIL from 2009 onwards. Conclusion ‐ clearly fails the overall standard of Key Failure Indicator 2. The signs were there that this business was high risk in this particular area. Key Failure Indicator 3 ‐ Negative Net Worth/Shareholders Funds Red and in brackets indicates a negative. Accounts to 30/06/07 Accounts to 30/06/08 Accounts to 30/06/09 Accounts to 30/06/10 Accounts to 30/06/11 Net Worth 1,108 1,131 (9,931) (42,279) (47,648) Working Capital (9,260) (7,609) (15,568) 39,980 (19,539) * Combined (8,152) (6,478) (25,499) (2,299) (67,187) * In combining these figures we acknowledge that there is a degree of overlap between Net Worth and Working Capital. Such a combination however has the ability of amplifying a problem to provide a clearer indication that something is amiss, whilst also stopping any masking by the transferring of figures from one section to another in suspect accounting manoeuvres. If you were supplying this company at the time of its demise then you were most definitely supplying them at by far their weakest time based on the accounts filed to year ending 30/6/2011. These accounts illustrated a significant increase in combined negative Net Worth and Working Capital and were particularly disturbing on the back of the seemingly much better 2010 profile. Conclusion ‐ The Promo Warehouse Limited clearly failed the overall standard of Key Failure Indicator 3. The high risk signs were there. Key Failure Indicator 4 ‐ late filing history Almost needless to say they were late on two filing occasions. Conclusion ‐ The Promo Warehouse Limited failed the overall standard of Key Failure Indicator 4. High risk status endorsed. Key Failure Indicators 5 & 6 The company was incorporated in 1997. This is irrelevant as an indicator of failure, but can contribute to feelings of complacency amongst suppliers. The Promo Warehouse Limited had no court judgments recorded against it at the time of its Liquidation. 23
Key Failure Indicator 7 ‐ Entries on the Register of Outstanding Invoices. Linked postcode entries were contained on the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI). Key Failure Indicator 8 – Credit Score Creditsafe ‐ Highest 3 year Credit Score 84 (03/04/2012) Lowest 3 year Credit Score NIL (22/12/2012) Credit Score at demise 49 (Credit Limit no higher than £1000 ever) DnB ‐ Highest 3 year Credit Score 65 (30/06/2008) Lowest 3 year Credit Score 51 (30/06/2009) Credit Score at demise 60 (Credit Limit £NIL since 30/06/2009) A little bit more interesting than We Brand It in that the Credit Score was on a ‘rollercoaster’ from early 2012 onwards with Creditsafe. Do bear in mind though that the actual Credit limit also varied between £NIL and £1000 during that period in the same way. Dun and Bradstreet kept their Credit Score higher throughout on their annual review and indeed if your source of reporting was D&B then The Promo Warehouse Limited almost passed the test, falling short only on the minimum standard marker of 55 with a score of 51 on 30/06/2009. However close a call it is though, this is a fail if we interpret facts correctly. Conclusion – The Promo Warehouse Ltd failed this indicator in the run up to their demise, but in fairness the up and down nature of their dealings and filings made it a little more difficult to spot than usual. There are no obvious signs of previous detrimental conduct by the directors of The Promo Warehouse Limited, although there is possibly a shade of questionable activity behind Promo UK Limited (company number 04623551). This is the second of three appointments that are common to both Nicholas Stern and Stephanie Gabriella Stern and quite recently the directors have again applied for Voluntary Dissolution on this company after the same action was seemingly cancelled during July of 2012. If you are owed monies by this latter company then Companies House needs to be alerted. We would also like to hear from you – email [email protected] please. The new “phoenix company” does not appear to involve Stephanie Gabriella Stern with its sole director being Nicholas Joseph Stern. The future name to possibly avoid in this regard is therefore JSM Promotions Limited. OVERALL CONCLUSION ‐ THIS FORMER DISTRIBUTOR FAILED ON ALL FIVE KEY POINT INDICATORS FROM JULY 2012 ONWARDS PRIOR TO ITS ULTIMATE LIQUIDATION IN MARCH/APRIL 2013. The Total Value of write‐offs suffered by BPMA AccountAssyst subscribers on The Promo Warehouse Limited creditors list was just £289 out of £88,000!!! 24
Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited ‐ Liquidation March 2013 Company Number 04613646 This is the third and final 2013 failure analysis included in this document. Please bear in mind, though, that as distributor failures continue to occur over the coming months, and they inevitably will, then we may issue bulletins going forwards as to how many of the key indicators the same failures satisfied. The failure of Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited came at a similar time to both Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It and the Promo Warehouse Limited and merits inclusion for that reason alone. Beware however that it comes with a positive twist at the end that speaks volumes for the integrity of the director in question. . So how does it fare against the Key Failure Indicator Trends? Key Failure Indicator 2 ‐ the lifetime highest credit reporting rating Creditsafe reporting limit ‐ between £NIL and £500 from 2004 to demise. Dun and Bradstreet ‐ £NIL from 2009 onwards. Conclusion ‐ clearly fails the overall standard of Key Failure Indicator 2. The signs were there that they were high risk in this particular area. Key Failure Indicator 3 ‐ Negative Net Worth/Shareholders Funds Red and in brackets indicates a negative. Accounts to 29/02/08 Accounts to 28/02/09 Accounts to 28/02/10 Accounts to 28/02/11 Accounts to 30/06/12 Net Worth (117,414) (49,638) (81,511) (69,462) (61,144) Working Capital (130,058) (63,335) (94,501) (83,230) (72,960) * Combined (247,472) (112,973) (176,012) (152,692) (134,104) * In combining these figures we acknowledge that there is a degree of overlap between Net Worth and Working Capital. Such a combination, however, has the ability of amplifying a problem to provide a clearer indication that something is amiss, whilst also stopping any masking by the transferring of figures from one section to another in suspect accounting manoeuvres. This company never got out of the red at any stage in the 5 years considered above. It seems that it was constantly short of cash and fighting a losing battle. In March 2012 this came to a head and it finally lost that fight, culminating in it filing for Liquidation. Was this all perhaps a sign of a change in the financial climate and the withdrawal of some sort of facilities from the bank? Was the company somehow straddled with debt and/or other issues from a previous arrangement? We are unable to answer those questions but one thing is for certain, however, and that is that the largest creditor listed was a major bank factoring company ‐ generally a very expensive way of borrowing unless expansion is highly successful. Conclusion – Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited clearly failed the overall standard of Key Failure Indicator 3. The high risk signs were there. Key Failure Indicator 4 ‐ late filing history Late filing on one occasion – it’s a box ticker! Conclusion – Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited failed the overall standard of Key Failure Indicator 4. High risk status endorsed. 25
Key Failure Indicators 5 & 6 The company was incorporated in 2002, which is irrelevant as a direct indicator as to failure, but nevertheless, as with We Brand It and The Promo Warehouse Ltd, this longevity has an inevitable tendency to encourage complacency from suppliers.. Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited had no court judgments recorded against it at the time of its Liquidation. Key Failure Indicator 7 ‐ Entries on the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited was clear of entries on the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI). Key Failure Indicator 8 – Credit Score Creditsafe ‐ Highest 3 year Credit Score 38 (29/09/2010) Lowest 3 year Credit Score NIL (01/12/2012) Credit Score at demise 26 (Credit Limit no higher than £500 ever) DnB ‐ Highest 3 year Credit Score 61 (29/02/2012) Lowest 3 year Credit Score 50 (28/02/2010) Credit Score at demise 61 (Credit Limit £NIL since 30/06/2009) Creditsafe had this one sorted as it failed on almost every spot. As with The Promo Warehouse Limited, Dun and Bradstreet however again kept their Credit Score comparatively high throughout on their annual review and again Blue Fish Business Promotions Ltd almost passed this test. Ultimately, however, they fell short on the minimum marker of 55 with a score of 50 on 28/02/2010. Notably throughout they kept their credit limit as £NIL. Conclusion – Blue Fish Promotions Ltd failed this indicator in the run up to their demise. OVERALL CONCLUSION ‐ THIS FORMER DISTRIBUTOR FAILED FOUR OUT OF FIVE OF THE KEY FAILURE INDICATORS PRIOR TO LIQUIDATION IN MARCH 2013. AND so to the ‘twist’… It is refreshing when we learn that a director of a failed company is doing the right thing, and we recognise that this is what Marc Penn is trying to do. Although we do not know Mr Penn personally, the vast majority of people in the industry we speak well of him (though not absolutely everybody of course!). There are perhaps many contributory reasons for the demise of Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited, Company Number 0461346, many that we may not be aware of. But the fact remains that the business failed leaving behind it a trail of losses to creditors. It would have been far more favourable had Mr Penn not placed Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited into Liquidation before he began taking the actions that he is now doing, but again perhaps he was in just too deep for any other alternative option. So what exactly is Mr Penn trying to do? In recognising that he does not hold the skills or resources to properly operate the administrative side of a business, Mr Penn has allied himself to and outsourced the same to 26
somebody that does (in this instance a fairly well known industry distributor with a good reputation and strong credit rating). We understand that Mr Penn (via his new outsourcing partner) has now approached creditors of Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited with a scheme that essentially offers them a substantial return on their losses in the form of a marketing fund, whereby as sufficient funds are built up, the suppliers will be invited to invoice against their write‐off on the liquidated business over a period of time. This marketing fund is being created from the profits generated from ongoing dealings. The ultimate aim is to ensure that any supplier does not ultimately suffer any loss on their cost incurred in supplying the failed company ‐ this might not end up covering all losses, but after deduction of profit and VAT it will go a very long way towards it for many. Bear in mind therefore that (a) Mr Penn is under no legal obligation whatsoever to do this and (b) it is seemingly simply out his own sense of supplier respect, integrity and duty of care that he has chosen to do so. If this works fully and he sees it through then he should be congratulated. His reputation may currently be tarnished by the failure surrounding Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited but he has the ethics to place himself under some personal hardship going forwards to endeavour to make amends where possible. Who else have you heard of doing this within the industry? Certainly not the directors of The Promo Warehouse Limited or Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It. One minor cautionary note still to highlight is that Mr Penn remains a director of Pink Shrimp Limited (Company Registration Number 05240478). The current credit score is 26 with Creditsafe and has been as low as 0. The modest financials with Negative Net Worth/working Capital do little else other than endorse an overall Recommended Credit Limit of £NIL. From what we know about Mr Penn’s apparent integrity and his newly formed relationship with a service provider, we feel confident that he has little intention of using this company to secure future supplier credit; nonetheless it would be remiss of us not to point out its existence when considering the current circumstances. In fact we do not know if Pink Shrimp Limited actually operates as a distributor business, but it will probably surprise no‐one to learn that Pink Shrimp Limited does fail four out of the five Key Failure Indicators within the Main Analysis section of this document. We also do not consider it at all relevant that Mr Penn was a director of Promota (UK) Limited between April and December of 2006. BPMA AccountAssyst subscribers were responsible for approximately £7,000 out of the total of £149,840 written off by suppliers to Blue Fish Business Promotions Ltd (The relationship between suppliers and the debtor pre‐dated the relationship between the suppliers and BPMA AccountAssyst so it could be argued that the true figure was actually £NIL out of £149,840). 27
The Definition of Bravado “Bravado – a pretentious, display of courage” 28
Sammiya Sarwar Mahesh Tulsiani Birthdate: 17/09/1977 Birthdate: 03/06/1980 Name Variations Saamiya Sarwar Sammiya Saher Sarwar Name Variations Mahesh Vashi Tulsiani Seema Sarwar Birthdate: 20/11/1949 Name Variations None identified 2007 Merchandising Bravado Ltd Company Number 05235644 Directors – Mahesh Vashi Tulsiani Sammiya Sarwar Incorporated 20/09/2004 Dissolved 7/6/2007 CCJ’s? – No 2007 Director Saamiya Sarwar Avalon Recruitment (UK) Ltd Company Number 04071048 Incorporated 13/09/2000 Dissolved 01/05/2007 CCJ’s – No Other director – Andrea McGann 2008 Director Sammiya Sarwar C3+ Limited Company Number 06278300 Incorporated 13/06/2007 Dissolved 06/06/2008 CCJ’s – No Other director – Ghulam Sarwar 2010 Director Sammiya Sarwar UK Bravado Limited Company Number 05694087 Incorporated 01/02/2006 Liquidation 30/09/10 CCJ’s – YES £23K + 2012 Director Seema Sarwar Platinum Global Limited Company Number 07364366 Incorporated 02/09/2010 Liquidation 19/03/12 CCJs – YES £328 Creditors ‐ £109,000 Sammiya Saher Sarwar short Term directorship 2004 Resigned as a director of Regent Innovations Limited (Industry supplier – note this is no reflection on or link in any way to the current company directorship) 2009 Director Mahesh Tulsiani Bravado Promotions Limited Company Number 05710824 Liquidation 09/07/2009 CCJ’s – YES £20K+ Other director – Priya Tulsiani 2013 Director Sammiya Saher Sarwar Bravado Global Limited Company Number 06889062 Incorporated 28/04/2009 Dissolved 04/04/2013 CCJ‘s – Yes £3700 Current Appointments and Live Companies: Sammiya Sarwar Seema Sarwar Elegance & Co Ltd Company Number 08205429 NO CURRENT DIRECTOR Incorporated 07/09/12 APPOINTMENTS IDENTIFIED Other Director – Kamran Anjum Other Dissolved Companies Zinc Group Limited (05082534) Merchandising Bravado Ltd (05235644) Mr Fixit Europe Ltd (05385947) Tulsiani Ltd (06461983) White Horse Asset Management Ltd (06793196) Mahesh Tulsiani Assetrise Ltd (03778424) Globeworth Ltd (04412465) Maantra UK Ltd (6133430) Rojets Ltd (6973078) Maycon Limited (08534445) SHOULD YOU BE SUPPLYING ANY OF THE ABOVE LIVE COMPANIES ON CREDIT? SEE NEXT PAGE FOR THE ANSWER 29
Sammiya Sarwar, Date of Birth 17/09/1977 (Also known as Saamiya Sarwar and Sammiya Saher Sarwar) The logical place to start is with the individual party that seemingly links them all. It seems that Sammiya Sarwar first came onto the promotional goods radar in September of 2004 under the banner of Merchandising Bravado Limited with her then co‐director, Mahesh Vashi Tulsiani. Merchandising Bravado Limited was dissolved on 7th June 2007 with no CCJ’s recorded and no obvious detrimental information associated with it at Companies House. If you as a supplier know otherwise or have written off money for goods supplied to this company, please do let us know as our suspicion is that we do not have all the relevant information. Please email [email protected] Sammiya (or Saamiya) Sarwar’s appointments to Avalon Recruitment (UK) Limited and C3+ Limited also appear to be clear of detrimental information. (Once again, if you know otherwise we would like to hear from you). It is not actually until 2010 when it all began to fall apart a little for Sammiya Sarwar with the liquidation of UK Bravado Limited in September of 2010. Creditors to this company suffered write‐offs of more than £157,000 and this figure only includes those parties that decided to file their claim so it is possible that the real figure is even higher. On 2nd September 2010 Sammiya Saher Sarwar was involved in the setting up of Platinum Global Limited with Seema Sarwar. She quickly resigned, and Platinum Global Ltd traded for less than 2 years, incorporated on 02/09/10 before its own liquidation on 19th March 2012. During that time it managed to rack up some £109,000 of creditors/suppliers under the guidance of Seema Sarwar as director. Again, this figure could well be higher. One must further question the name variations filed at Companies House by Sammiya Sarwar – are these perhaps designed to deliberately deflect the various credit reporting companies from linking up the associated business failures? Such thoughts would be endorsed by the short‐term appointment of Sammiya Saher Sarwar to Platinum Global Limited alongside Ms Seema Sarwar. (Perhaps Seema Sarwar, date of birth 20/11/1949, is the mother of Sammiya Sarwar?) We recommend that if you as a supplier in this industry receive a credit application from a company associated with either Seema Sarwar or Sammiya Sarwar it should be summarily rejected. Sammiya Sarwar has no current directorships that we can identify as things stand but of course she is very much linked by association with Seema Sarwar who is now a director of ELEGANCE & CO LIMITED (Company Number 08205429) incorporated on 7th September 2012. We cannot currently tell whether or not they are operating in the promotional goods sector or not but either way this is a WARNING WITH A CAPITAL “W” for any industry supplier that does receive a credit application from this particular company. Seema Sarwar, Date of Birth 20/11/1949 (No alternative associated name identified) We have a couple of concerns regarding Ms Seema Sarwar. What exactly prompted the previously un‐appointed director Ms Seema Sarwar, at the age of 60, to suddenly get involved in business as a director of Platinum Global Limited and in turn now also with Elegance & Co Limited ? 30
Perhaps the only people who can possibly answer that question are Seema or Sammiya Sarwar themselves. What we have established as fact is that there is a “Sameera Sarwar” of (Flat?) 317 The Blenheim Centre, Prince Regent Road, Hounslow, London, TW3 1NB that was made bankrupt on 26th March 2012, subsequently discharged on 26th March 2013. The alleged date of birth of this party is 1st January 1982. (Can that date of birth be correct?) It appears from Companies House records that this Sameera Sarwar may well have had involvement in two businesses at the TW3 1NB postcode, namely Sharp Club Limited (Registration number 05548740) and IHSB Solutions Limited (Registration Number 07222557). Both of these businesses are now dissolved with no apparent detrimental information recorded against them. Let us know if you have any conflicting information. Our question therefore is whether Sammiya (or Saamiya, or Sammiya Saher or even Seema) could also at some point have been operating as Sameera? They may of course be completely separate people but you can help us by establishing whether any orders made for Bravado or any of the other companies formerly named in this chapter have ever had end user deliveries to TW3 1NB or Sharp Club Limited or IHSB Solutions Limited ([email protected] with information). In conclusion, we re‐iterate our recommendation that no credit should be granted to any business associated with Seema or Sammiya Sarwar. Mahesh Tulsiani, Date of Birth 03/06/1980 (Also known as Mahesh Vashi Tulsiani) It is quite a close call as to whether Mr Tulsiani can be linked in some way with Sammiya and in turn Seema Sarwar. Ultimately however his involvement with industry supplier, Regent Innovations Limited, until his resignation in 2004, and his subsequent association with Sammiya Sarwar as co‐director in Merchandising Bravado Limited that same year meant that we felt obliged to do so. Bravado Promotions Limited was liquidated on 9th July 2009, involving another family member in Priya Tulsiani as a co‐director. Unfortunately it has not yet been possible for us to obtain a Creditors List on Bravado Promotions Limited as the company’s failure relates to a date before such information was being gathered and produced by our approved sources (please do email [email protected] if you are able to help us with this information from your archived records). Accordingly, we cannot advise what the creditor write‐
off value was for this company but it is almost certain that it both exists and is substantial due to the £20,000 plus of judgments recorded against the company at the imminent/post failure stage. We are not sure whether Mr Tulsiani continues to retain any interest or involvement in the promotional goods industry. He has a number of dissolved companies behind him but this is no real crime unless people lost monies to them. (Please review the plum column on the first page of this chapter and let us know if you did – [email protected]). With no obvious records of detrimental information against either these companies or the ones that Mr Tulsiani is currently a director of, our reservations surrounding him are limited to the failure of Bravado Promotions Limited and his historic links to the ‘Bravado’ name. Let’s consider – Mr Tulsiani calls his distributor companies “Bravado” (something) Limited, as does his former co‐director. Over a period of time they tarnish this name and brand through several business failures. (The "Collins English Dictionary" definition of bravado is shown on the title page of this chapter – perhaps this definition should be changed to incorporate these findings!) 31
Having therefore exhausted all the ‘Bravado’ goodwill and opportunities in the industry, Mr Tulsiani sets up his very latest company: the name “Maycon Limited”. A more appropriate name perhaps!! But the lesson to be learned is that any supplier in the promotional goods industry should maybe think very carefully before supplying any promotional goods on credit to Maycon Limited! Can you help us further with this section? It is our intention to continue gathering as much information as possible with regards to the dealings of the parties named within this chapter. It is possible that in time that we may be able to eliminate Mr Tulsiani from it altogether. Unfortunately there are just a few individuals that blight the industry. Some of those named within this chapter are without doubt amongst the worst but they are not by any means alone. Such parties simply take advantage of the lax account opening processes followed by some suppliers. This is to the detriment of suppliers financially but also to other distributors who are potentially penalised on price to cover the write‐off suffered by suppliers to rogue distributors. Ethical distributors also lose business to dodgy‐dealing distributor companies. Worse still, the industry is tarnished by deposits taken on account by a disreputable distributor, and the order never actually coming to fruition. Is it a coincidence on failure for example that the highest ranking creditor on Platinum Global Limited is actually American Airlines for £22,848 – we cannot imagine that they offered credit to Platinum Global Limited for this sum, so should we assume that this was an order that American Airlines placed and paid for in advance that was never actually received ? If this is indeed the case, then will it now be easier or harder to persuade the Marketing Director of such a high‐profile company to spend an element of his/her budget on promotional goods going forwards? Suppliers and distributors alike lose out on future major opportunities due to such conduct. Suppliers need to do what they can to drive out disreputable distributors from the market altogether, (see previous references within this document to the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) or contact [email protected] to learn more). This is the type of thing that frustrates and antagonises good customers and the genuine distributors, the lifeblood and longer‐term future of your business. We repeat again, if you are a supplier who lost money to any company listed on the first page of this chapter, we would very much like to hear from you. We would like to know which company you supplied, what your value of write‐off was and for which end‐
user the goods and products were delivered. At this stage it is only a suspicion, but we believe that there are possibly common end‐users also involved in some way that can be linked further with the names identified in this chapter. Should our flow chart and research be expanded further in some way? Please do help us if you feel you can. Email [email protected]. 32
Directors with a History 33
Challenges Faced We have previously addressed our particular concerns surrounding Sammiya Sarwar and the likely related companies within this document. In addition we have looked closely at the distributor failures of The Promo Warehouse, Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It and Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited. In this section we analyse as many distributor failures that we could identify in addition to the ones already reviewed. Suppliers ‐ please remember that we do always want to hear from you if you have monies outstanding to others not noted within this document. We may or may not be able to collect them for you but we will certainly add them to version two of this document ([email protected]). Our aim in this chapter is threefold: 1. To document the previous history of directors behind failed distributors. 2. To gather any additional information from you that may help us build a bigger and better picture in some way. 3. To encourage directors of failed industry distributors to make some sort of a gesture to atone for their previous actions. We initially looked at the previous history of the directors (both within and outside the industry) to see whether there were any pointers to them being a high credit risk, irrespective of what the actual credit reporting companies were advising. We have also applied the standard 5 Key Failure Indicators to live companies linked to those directors with history to test their status right now. Our Challenges in analysing a director’s history: In order to establish the pattern of an individual’s behaviour we needed to analyse the status of the director’s linked companies. We did this by carrying out credit reports and performing exhaustive checks (both manually and electronically) on all the companies linked to the directors of the failed companies. We have focused on the primary contacts and/or appointed directors as deemed appropriate, e.g. we may have omitted an accountant who has no apparent controlling interest and is essentially acting as a non‐executive board member. Linking Individuals This task was made more difficult by the fact that Companies House does not have a consistent method of uniquely identifying a particular individual. As such it is possible for individuals to use different variations of their name (e.g. by including a middle name or different prefixes) and different trading addresses to avoid being linked to different businesses. It appears that these variations in name are at best a case of individuals unintentionally not using a middle name when confirming their appointment as a director and in the worse cases appear to be a deliberate tactic for individuals to wilfully mask their involvement with a failed business when setting up a new legal entity. We even have evidence of one director apparently using a different date of birth when registering as a director for a couple of different businesses: 34
First mention therefore must go to Cory Goodrich of PROMOSOAP SOLUTIONS LTD (dissolved) and U.S. BRANDING GROUP LIMITED (dissolved without ever filing accounts and also with unpaid debt information ‐ so considered insolvent). Our concern here is that Mr Goodrich has different dates of birth recorded with the two companies. We will leave readers to make up their own mind as to his intention in doing so. Message to Mr Goodrich ‐ if wish to provide an explanation, please do by emailing [email protected]. Additionally should you wish for this information to be removed from this document then you need to ensure that all suppliers that are owed monies by the above named companies are fully discharged. Again, please do get in touch to discuss. Suppliers – please inform us if you have outstanding monies owed by either Promo Soap Solutions Limited or U.S. Branding Group Limited, or indeed any other company related to Mr Goodrich that we have not yet identified. It will help us to build up a clearer picture of the questionable activities of Mr Goodrich and in turn may prevent other suppliers from being caught out by any future re‐incarnations. Be part of the club of knowledge! The email address for information is [email protected]. Directors Resigning Shortly Before Distributor Failure Another tactic that some unscrupulous directors employ is to resign as a director before the company fails in the hope that the business failure does not get listed against their personal history record. With Companies House and credit reporting companies, sometimes this works, sometimes it does not. With us at BPMA AccountAssyst, it does not work! Despite the challenges noted above, we have managed to perform a number of advanced searches of name, addresses and date of birth in order to ensure that we have as complete a picture as we can of an individual’s history as a director. We Cannot Keep Repeating this Enough ‐ You Can Really Help We re‐iterate that if you know of any links or potential links that we have yet to identify then we would welcome any additional information that any supplier out there can provide so that we can expand our research – [email protected]. Thank you. It is, of course, your own decision as to whether you should have dealings with ‘a director with history’. Our aim is to inform by documenting the facts and our findings in order that your decision is an educated one. Occasionally we may pass some sort of opinion due to the nature of the exercise, but this is solely because we strongly believe that this industry should be cleaned up for the benefit of suppliers, genuine distributors and end‐users alike. Dissolved Status A further issue when analysing the previous conduct of a director linked to a company is the company status at Companies House. The most common flag for a company that is no longer active is that its status is dissolved. By classifying a business as dissolved it does not differentiate between the companies that have voluntarily dissolved without any creditors and those that have been struck off the register or dissolved owing monies. Whilst technically and legally a company should not be voluntarily allowed to dissolve whilst it owes monies, our experience is that the policing of this requirement in the UK is practically non‐existent. Any protections for creditors are often as a result of creditors policing such matters themselves. Only companies that have had some type of formal insolvency proceedings commenced against them will show at Companies House as being insolvent. For the purposes of our report we have looked deeply into those companies that are simply listed as being dissolved. If we have initial evidence (and of course there may be more to come from you) that these companies have CCJ’s, negative financials (i.e. more liabilities than assets) information in the event 35
history that the company is insolvent or, very importantly, entries on the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) then we have considered them as being of concern. However, even by applying these additional criteria to assess the likelihood of a failed distributor as being of concern or potentially “insolvent”, we remain unable to accurately assess the true status of the company with absolute confidence. It could be that the company has creditors and the value of these debts is not worth chasing. They may not be considered worth chasing by the supplier due to lines of communication being terminated (dead phone line, returned emails etc). Because we do not know about something does not mean that it does not exist. Accordingly, even though the failed company might be listed as dissolved it could be the case that it is technically insolvent. The true number of insolvent companies will probably be higher than is formally reported within V.1 of this document. Indeed, from our research 69% of the failed companies that we looked were listed as being dissolved whereas there is clear evidence to suggest that they would be better described as insolvent. As such the information contained within the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) is invaluable when assessing credit worthiness of distributors within the industry. As the BPMA use the debt collection provider, Direct Route Collections, as their recommended partner for debt collection, any debt information that is sent to them is shared via ROSI for the benefit of promotional goods suppliers. For this reason it is helpful that you use Direct Route Collections for any invoices that need chasing even if you think the debtor has effectively ceased to trade. The information with regards to these outstanding invoices will create a picture of the bad payers within the industry (both for linked and seemingly non‐
linked distributors) that everyone can use in order to assess credit worthiness. Email [email protected]. Additional General Advice and Guidance It is difficult to establish what has actually happened with a company that is no longer trading. As outlined previously, a company listed as dissolved has often been dissolved owing monies and in this case it could be argued that insolvent is a far more accurate description of its true fate. As a general rule we would advise caution when dealing with directors who have links to previous companies that are listed as insolvent OR dissolved with apparent negative financials, particularly if they are or have been within the promotional merchandise industry. On higher value accounts it could be worth looking at the director’s dissolved companies in more detail to see if they had ROSI entries, CCJ’s, negative net worth or any entries in the history that point towards insolvency. Please contact AccountAssyst if you would like more information on precisely how to do this [email protected]. Statistical Analysis Overview We are not entirely sure how relevant these statistics are, but they do make interesting reading: 45% of failed companies had a director of another insolvent company in the industry 62% of failed companies had a director of another dissolved or insolvent company in the industry 66% of failed companies had a director of another insolvent company 83% of failed companies had a director of another dissolved or insolvent company 38% of failed companies have a director that’s a director of a company currently trading in the industry Given the above statistics, it is clear that directors of failed companies do usually have some previous history with regards to failed business interests, whether it be in the industry or otherwise. Accordingly, knowing precisely who or what entity you are dealing with before you supply on credit is vital. 36
In general the individual director analysis is broken down into 3 categories. These are: 1. Directors who have a live company with multiple company histories and concerns associated with them (the primary concern and the worst category). 2. Directors with a live company, with just a single company failure or concern that are seemingly still operating in the industry (of lesser concern that those directors identified in 1. but still a worry nevertheless). 3. Directors who do not currently have any live appointments but have history of company failure (some names you need to be aware of in case they decide to set up again). Directors who have a live company with multiple company failures and concerns associated with them This is the most concerning category of all and any party named here is one of your biggest dangers as a supplier. There is a clear pattern of directors who have multiple industry failures and, as such, a seemingly blatant disregard for you as suppliers. It is unsurprising that they sometimes also have a history of insolvent companies in other industries. The names listed below are the directors/companies that appear to be currently trading whose directors or principals are related to multiple company failures and concerns. We have endeavoured to grade these in order of greatest to lowest concern but all are concerning. As with other matters throughout this document the more red you see, the more concerned we are: SAMMIYA SARWAR (Date of Birth 17/09/1977) Also known as Saamiya Sarwar, Sammiya Saher Sarwar PLUS SEEMA Sarwar (Date of Birth 20/11/1949) Region: Birmingham & Greater London Company Elegance & Co Limited Number Status 08205429 Live Bravado Global Limited 06889062 Dissolved
Platinum Global Limited 07364366 Insolvent UK Bravado limited 05694087 Insolvent C3+ Limited 06278300 Dissolved Avalon Recruitment (UK) Ltd 04071048 Dissolved Merchandising Bravado Ltd 05235644 Dissolved Status Detail Comments/Observations New Company No detrimental information – Yet? Do you suppliers have any? Dissolved April CCJ’s £3700 – no accounts filed. 2013 Liquidation Claiming creditors £109,000 approx March 2013 ROSI Entries Liquidation CCJ’s £23K + Can any supplier out there supply a Creditors list please? Dissolved 2008 No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Dissolved 2007 No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Dissolved 2007 No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – we just had to lump the Sarwar ladies together and make them top of the tree for reasons already documented previously. Message to Sammiya Sarwar and Seema Sarwar – The facts speak for themselves. There can be no valid explanation. 37
PHILLIP RICHARD STONE (Date of Birth 30/06/1960) Region: OXFORDSHIRE Company Gator Gear Ltd Bonus Promotions Limited Number Status Status Detail 08133044 Resigned? Live / trading with Sole Director Mandy Jane Stone 06329872 Insolvent Liquidation November 2010 04236052 Dissolved August 2009 Print Tech UK Limited 05379975 Insolvent Cannay Limited 02142754 Dissolved Character Collections Company Limited 02303974 Dissolved Tuston Textiles Limited 01005305 Insolvent Bronacre Limited 02435222 Dissolved Phil Stone Marketing Limited Comments/Observations Formed 6/7/2012 No accounts yet filed. Are you owed any overdue monies right now? If you are then we want to hear from you urgently. [email protected]. £58k+ Claiming Creditors with losses, £12k CCJ's £16k CCJ's, £‐70k Net Worth Are you still owed any monies? Please send copy invoice or statement if you are
£8k CCJ's Can you supply a creditors list? Liquidation February 2008 Dissolved with £‐90k Shareholders Funds, £‐110k detrimental Working Capital Are you still owed any info monies? Please send copy invoice or statement if you are Dissolved No accounts ever filed. No detrimental evidence established. Do you know different? Liquidated £‐70k Net Worth, £‐277k Shareholder June 2004 Funds Can anybody provide a creditors list from archives? Dissolved No detrimental evidence established. Do November you know different? 2008 Suppliers – Mr Stone’s short term directorship to Gator Gear above (appointment date
06/07/2012, resignation date 17/09/2012) has to be a cause for concern, as indeed do the
inconsistencies on his Companies House name filings e.g. Phillip with two L’s and Philip with just
one L. Message to Philip Richard Stone – Mr Stone, there is so much red within the above table that we wonder whether we are wasting our time writing this message, but we would welcome any efforts you would like to make to atone for some of the write‐offs suffered by promotional goods suppliers along the lines of Marc Penn (Blue Fish). Please email [email protected] with any proposals or suggestions you may have. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Gator Gear Limited ‐ has yet to file any accounts so cannot yet be analysed against the 5 Key Failure Indicators for distributors. 38
MICHAEL PETER QUIGLEY (Date of Birth 05/02/1980) Region: Tyne & Wear Company Quigco Limited Burgess World Limited Moor Graphics (Design & Print) Limited Environment Action Limited HFW Presentation & Display Limited H.F.W. Plastics Limited Freshh Creative Limited R P L Print Management Limited RPL Packaging Limited Reed Presentation Limited Attic Creative Limited Number Status 08227904 Live Status Detail Trading as Quigprint Promo Gifts 07273237 Dissolved Dissolved with detrimental info 02045292 Dissolved Dissolved with detrimental info 06814611 Dissolved Dissolved 06231402 Insolvent Liquidated February 2010 00967815 Insolvent Liquidated August 2010 05274820 Resigned Resigned as director October 2010 05637509 Resigned Resigned July 2011 06231398 Resigned Resigned July 2011 04936470 Resigned Resigned July 2011 05978851 Dissolved Dissolved September 2009 Comments/Observations Formed 25/09/2012. No detrimental information established. Are you owed any overdue monies right now? ROSI entries. Do you have any additional unpaid monies owing from this now dissolved company? 30k of CCJ's. Do you have any additional unpaid monies owing from this now dissolved company? ROSI Entries. No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? £615K Claiming Creditors with losses, £159k CCJ's No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? ROSI Entries. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? CVA Since September 2011. ROSI Entries. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – Quigco Limited does not look a very good credit proposition at all in light of the red aspects contained in the above table. [email protected] if you can help with any of the requested information above. Message to Michael Peter Quigley – An awful lot of detrimental information and monies written off since 2010, Mr Quigley. We can only hope that suppliers make the right decisions in future when considering providing you with credit. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Quigco Limited ‐ has yet to file any accounts so cannot yet be analysed against the 5 Key Failure Indicators for distributors. 39
JAMES WILLIAM LAWRENCE (Date of Birth 31/03/1973) Region: Essex Company Budget Print Ltd Number Status 07496545 Live PJ Print Solutions Ltd 07365504 Live A2BUK Limited Elite Design + Print Limited 07955357 Live 05002822 Dissolved Elite Media Services Ltd 04215662 Dissolved Ministry Of Dub Ltd 07519494 Dissolved Ministryofdub.Com Limited 06613213 Dissolved Status Detail Non Trading? Comments/Observations No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? Accounts Suspended strike off, possibly due to 1k Overdue CCJ Do you currently have any overdue monies? Pre‐dissolution Records overdue Dissolved with ROSI Entries, £‐3k Net Worth, £3700+ detrimental CCJ’s info February Are or were you owed overdue monies? 2012 If you were please let us know. Dissolved with £‐9k Net Worth Are or were you owed detrimental overdue monies? If you were please let info February us know. 2005 Dissolved No detrimental evidence established. Do September you know otherwise? 2012 Dissolved No detrimental evidence established. Do January 2010 you know otherwise? Suppliers – there is a disturbing history of dissolutions with a few extra bits of detrimental information building up here. Any credit dealings have therefore to be considered fairly high risk. [email protected] if you can help with any of the requested information above. Message to James William Lawrence – all unpaid creditors on all of the above named companies will need to be fully discharged for us to consider removing you from this document. Please get in touch with your proposals – [email protected]. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Budget Print Limited ‐ has yet to file anything other than dormant accounts so cannot yet be analysed against the 5 Key Failure Indicators for distributors. PJ Print Solutions Limited – filed only very modest turnover accounts, but already fails three and arguably four of the Key Failure Indicators. Considered High Risk. A2BUK Limited – yet to file any accounts, but already fails three and arguably four of the Key Failure Indicators. Considered High Risk. 40
DARREN ROBERT FRANCEY (Date of Birth 10/11/1969) Also known as DARREN FRANCEY at Companies House Region: Hertfordshire Company Number Status Global Merchandise 07605038 Live Solutions Limited The Corporate Merchandise 02686195 Insolvent
Company Limited The Daisy Chain Store Limited Essential Schoolwear Limited Status Detail Trading Comments/Observations No detrimental information established. Are you owed any overdue monies? Administration Creditors list please if anybody out there October 2009, still has a copy. Send to [email protected] subsequently placed into Liquidation 06630258 Dissolved Dissolved Dissolved with negative net worth of £63K and negative shareholders funds of £16K, based on last accounts filed. No other detrimental information established. Are you still owed any unpaid monies by this company? 05369019 Dissolved Dissolved No detrimental information established. Are you still owed any unpaid monies by this company? Suppliers – One of the more controversial failures of recent times was that of The Corporate Merchandise Company Limited. If you have a creditors list on record then we would like a copy in order to fill some gaps in our information. Your recollections of what happened that caused so much controversy would also be appreciated so that we may report it accurately in V.2 of this document. Information to [email protected] please. Message to Darren Francey – no message at this time as we are still gathering our information. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Global Merchandise Solutions Limited ‐ have to date filed only one set of accounts (which seem perfectly OK – but then again so did the last one filed by The Corporate Merchandise Company Limited). At this time they currently fail just two of the Key Distributor Failure Indicators. HARRY MICHAEL NUGENT (Date of Birth 29/07/1965) Also known as HARRY NUGENT at Companies House Region: Hertfordshire Company Deauville Developments UK Limited Number 05690083 Status Live Status Detail Trading Kenneth Turner Limited 05195589 Live Trading 41
Comments/Observations Filed negative net worth/shareholders funds of £233K on latest accounts to 31/12/2011. No other detrimental information established. Are you owed any overdue monies? Filed negative net worth of £258K and negative shareholders funds of £1993K on latest accounts to 31/01/2012. No other detrimental information Kenneth Turner Ireland Limited Global Merchandise Solutions Limited Global Brands In Retail Limited IE415537 Live Trading 07605038 Live Trading 07636656 MARBHP LIMITED 08331798 Tenax Plastics Limited 02766564 Tenax UK Limited
03446917 Lady Bird Property Associates Limited 08533410 SCF (UK) Limited 08610262 The Corporate Merchandise Company Limited 02686195 HMN Luton Limited 08272535 Bountee Limited 05955066 Basesmart limited 06790631 Station Road Borehamwood 06686495 established. Are you owed any overdue monies? No detrimental information established. Are you owed any overdue monies? Live Non‐Trading? Filed Dormant accounts on first accounts filed to 31/05/2012. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Live New Company Incorporated 14/12/2012. No accounts yet filed. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Live Filing Dormant Filed dormant non‐trading accounts on Accounts latest to 31/12/2011. Ceased to trade June of 1999 with the net assets and business transferred to Tenax UK Ltd. Mr Nugent appointed as director 13/01/2013. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Live Trading Latest accounts filed to 31/12/2011 showed a pre tax loss of £766K, which pre‐dates Mr Nugent’s appointment as a director on 13/01/2013. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Live New Company Formed 17/05/2013. No accounts yet filed. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Live New Company Formed 15/07/2013. No accounts yet filed. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Insolvent Administration Creditors list please if anybody out there October 2009, still has a copy. subsequently placed into Liquidation Live Pre‐
Formed 31/10/2012. No accounts yet Dissolution filed. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Live Trading Incorporated 04/10/2006, negative net worth of £93K on latest accounts filed, Mr Nugent appointed 4/01/2007, resigned directorship 01/09/2009 so may not be relevant Dissolved Dissolved Incorporated 14/01/2009, dissolved at Companies House with negative net worth of £52K and negative shareholders funds of £20K. No other detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Dissolved Dissolved Incorporated 02/09/2008, dissolved 42
Limited Opalnote Limited 05751983 Dissolved Dissolved Sweet Medicine Limited 05471569 Dissolved Dissolved Urbanhand Limited 03917844 Dissolved Dissolved Punch Embroidery Limited 036116428 Dissolved Dissolved Nationwide Electrical Contractors Limited 02786172 Dissolved Dissolved Richards & Thirkell (Luton) Limited 00633923 Dissolved Dissolved Global Merchandise Solutions (Northampton) Limited 07901408 Dissolved Dissolved Eco Soil Solutions Limited 05781258 Dissolved Dissolved Living Developments (Harpenden) Limited 03875700 Dissolved Dissolved Denbies Accessories Limited 05269855 Insolvent Liquidation Seckloe 230 Limited 02877974 Dissolved Dissolved 43
without ever filing any accounts. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Incorporated 22/03/2006, dissolved without ever filing any accounts. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Incorporated 03/06/2005, dissolved with positive net worth/shareholders finds of £173K. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Incorporated 02/02/2000, dissolved with positive net worth/shareholders funds of £245K and also net assets of £260K. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Incorporated 20/10/1995, dissolved without ever filing any accounts. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Dissolved without ever filing any accounts. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Dissolved with positive net worth/shareholders funds of £20K and also net assets of £261K. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Incorporated 09/01/2012. Dissolved without ever filing any accounts. No detrimental information yet established. Do you know otherwise? Incorporated 13/04/2006. Dissolved with parity on net worth/shareholders funds and assets. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Incorporated 11/11/1999, dissolved with negative net worth/shareholders funds of £ 6K but with offsetting assets of positive £7K. Mr Nugent resigned 01/12/2000. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Incorporated 26/10/2004, commenced trading 19/03/2005. Showed a pre‐tax loss of £89K and negative net worth of £1.7 million on latest accounts filed pre liquidation (net assets positive £2.278 million, shareholders funds positive £2.263 million. Mr Nugent resigned 06/02/2008. Incorporated 6/12/1993, the accounts filed to 31/12/2010 indicated that the company was dormant prior to Bury Promotions UK Limited 06138817 Dissolved Dissolved Kulstar Limited 02793043 Dissolved Dissolved Hills Cooked Meats Limited 06021088 Dissolved Dissolved FFP Research Limited 06091512 Dissolved Dissolved dissolution. Mr Nugent resigned 07/01/2009. No detrimental information Established. Do you know otherwise? ROSI Entries £10,231. Incorporated 05/03/2007. The latest accounts pre‐
dissolution show a negative of £267K net worth/shareholders funds, partially offset by positive £196K of net assets. Mr Nugent resigned on 01/09/2009 having only been appointed on 13/08/2009? No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Incorporated 23/02/1993, positive net worth of £22K on latest accounts pre‐
dissolution. Mr Nugent resigned on 23/02/2008. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Incorporated 06/12/2006, positive net assets of £291K on latest accounts pre‐
dissolution. Mr Nugent resigned on 20/04/2008. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Incorporated 08/02/2007. The latest accounts pre‐dissolution show a negative of £61K net worth/shareholders funds. Mr Nugent resigned his directorship on 01/10/2009. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – From all accounts one of the more controversial distributor failures of recent years from a supplier perspective was that of CMC, The Corporate Merchandise Company Limited. If you have a creditors list on record then we would like a copy in order that we can fill some gaps in our information. Your recollections of what happened that caused so much controversy would also be appreciated so that we may report it accurately in V.2 of this document. Send any information to [email protected] please. There seems to be a large amount of recent activity from Mr Nugent, including new appointments and/or new company formations. This is in addition to numerous dissolutions with only one year’s accounts, if any at all, filed for each. Message to Harry Michael Nugent – no message at this time as we are still gathering our information. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Global Merchandise Solutions Limited ‐ have to date filed only one set of accounts (which seem perfectly OK – but then again so did the last ones filed by The Corporate Merchandise Company Limited). At this time this company currently fails just two of the Key Distributor Failure Indicators. It does not appear that any of Mr Nugent’s other live companies have any link to the promotional goods industry, but of course if you know otherwise please let us know. 44
JASON WILLIAM ROSS (Date of Birth 13/05/1970) & VANESSA LOUISE ROSS (Date of Birth 16/12/1972) Region: CORNWALL Company Number Status Polgannel Solutions Limited 07753991 Live Brand 88 Limited Sport and Save Limited Status Detail Trading 05771166 Insolvent Liquidation October 2011 05411381 Insolvent Liquidation January 2008 Comments/Observations Negative New Worth / Shareholders Funds on latest accounts filed. Are you currently owed any overdue monies? Claiming creditors with losses £62K approx. CCJ’s £29K + Liquidation pre dates our access to creditor data. Negative £67K Net worth on last accounts filed for period ending 30/04/2006. Can you supply a creditors list? Suppliers – Two previous companies, two apparent liquidation failures, three years apart. And now Polgannel Solutions Limited. What might 2014 bring? Message to Jason William Ross & Vanessa Louise Ross – We hope it is third time lucky, Mr & Mrs Ross? The first two were not so lucky for certain suppliers in the promotional goods industry. We will await with interest any effort you might like to consider to mitigate the losses suffered by those parties. [email protected] for any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Polgannel Solutions Limited has within the first year of filing managed to fail three of the five Key Failure Indicators for distributors. To be viewed as high risk. MR IAN BRUCE GEAR (Date of Birth 21/07/1962) Region: KENT/SURREY Company W H Marketing Limited White Horse Marketing Limited Number Status Status Detail Comments/Observations 07957207 Live Pre Dissolution Are you owed overdue monies currently? 04770216 Dissolved Dissolved with substantive unpaid monies owing to suppliers – are you owed money? Send us a statement. ROSI Entries Suppliers ‐ White Horse Marketing Limited is not a formal insolvency (now dissolved) and yet the company simply ceased to trade and wrote to all suppliers in April 2012 advising that the company had simply ran out of money and couldn't get support from the bank. Hey Presto! The already formed (21/2/2012) phoenix company of WH Marketing Limited begins to trade. Is it any surprise that this new company is now itself on the brink of being dissolved also? Suppliers – We would like to hear from you with regard to any outstanding debts on either White Horse Marketing Limited or W H Marketing Limited. We do already have some limited information on White Horse Marketing Limited but by the release of the next version of this document, we hope to be able to provide an indication of the true scale of the values written off by industry suppliers. Send information to [email protected] please. 45
Message to Mr Ian Bruce Gear ‐ The factual historic actions speak for themselves yet you have received all requests for communication with a wall of silence. You are, of course, invited to take remedial measures to alleviate the impact upon your creditors, and we urge you to do so in order to lessen the damage to your reputation. [email protected] for any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES W H Marketing Limited – yet to file any accounts, yet still manages to fail three of the five Key Failure Indicators for distributors. Inevitably has to be considered high risk bearing in mind the director’s historical disregard for suppliers. SIMON JAMES THOMPSON (Date of Birth 19/03/1977) Region: Cheshire Company Appliance Warehouse (UK) Ltd Printed Merchandise Ltd Conferences UK Limited SJT Consultancy Limited Accommodation For Students Ltd Total Event Accommodation Management Solutions Limited Direct Stoves Ltd Fancy Dress Limited Number Status 06372196 Live Status Detail Live and Trading with good credit score 06705384 Live Pre‐
Voluntary dissolution strike off reqister suspended 05308243 Live Live and Trading with good credit score 04927748 Live Live and Trading with good credit score 04111099 Live Live and Trading with good credit score 04720162 Dissolved Dissolved August 2009 Comments/Observations £‐81k Net Worth, £‐81k Shareholders Funds 06746755 Dissolved No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? 06683105 Dissolved Dissolved November 2010 Dissolved with detrimental info December 2010 46
3k of CCJ's, negative net worth, overdue with returns and accounts. ROSI Entries. No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? £‐19k Net Worth, £‐19k Shareholders Funds Are or were you still owed monies? Please advise if you are. Suppliers – Printed Merchandise Limited could actually be very quickly resurrected any day by simply filing the necessary documentation to prevent dissolution. Nevertheless do watch out for any new companies associated with this director. Message to Simon James Thompson – come on Mr Thompson, given your other live trading companies don’t you think you should be doing the right thing here? File the paperwork on Printed Merchandise Limited to prevent dissolution before clearing any outstanding debts to industry suppliers. [email protected] for any suggestions/proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Printed Merchandise Limited – succeeds in failing all five of Key Failure Indicators for distributors. High Risk. Appliance Warehouse (UK) Ltd – non industry? Fails one indicator. Conferences UK Limited – non industry? Fails one indicator. SJT Consultancy Limited – non industry? Fails Four indicators. Accommodation For Students Ltd – non industry? Passes on all five indicators, no fails. MISS DEBORAH ANNE HULL (Date of Birth 11/08/1959) Region: BIRMINGHAM/WEST MIDLANDS Company DIRECT4LOGOS Limited Number Status 08419729 LIVE Status Detail New Company Orchard Trading Company (UK) Limited (Miss Hull not actually a director but main shareholder) K. C. D. LIMITED 03745857 Insolvent Liquidation February 2013 02768788 Dissolved Dissolved July 2012 Comments/Observations Company Formed 26/02/2013 no accounts yet filed and no detrimental information established. Do you currently have any overdue invoices? Creditors Claims £21,500 approx Unsatisfied Judgments £12K+. Are you also owed monies? Please send a copy statement if you are. Suppliers ‐ the failed distributor Orchard Trading Company (UK) Limited owed creditors nearly £21,500 when entering into Liquidation. It is likely that the true figure was in fact higher than this due to the some creditors simply not registering their claim. Indeed had the Orchard Trading Company (UK) Limited been a little more sizeable in creditor write‐off value, it is likely that it would have formed and extra full case history in a previous chapter. Note ‐ There is an additional entry and comments on co‐shareholder of The Orchard Trading Company (UK) Limited, Mr Raymond William Eyre, later on within this chapter. To be fair, Miss Hull was merely a shareholder and not an appointed director in The Orchard Trading Company (UK) Limited, however we felt obliged to highlight the link. Message to Deborah Anne Hull ‐ We very much invite you, Miss Hull, and the other parties involved in the above companies to consider taking positive actions to compensate the promotional goods suppliers that lost monies on the dissolution of The Orchard Trading Company (UK) Limited. Please do consider repairing some of the damage. We would be happy to provide a favourable mention within the next version of this document if you decide to do so. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Direct4Logos Limited ‐ Yet to file any accounts so cannot be analysed. 47
ADAM JOHN LEAH (Date of Birth 02/02/1979) Region: Cheshire Company Printed Merchandise Ltd Axon Fireplaces Ltd Number Status Status Detail 06705384 Pre‐
Voluntary dissolution strike off reqister suspended 05457004 Live Non Trading Fireplace Warehouse Ltd 05383529 Live Appliance Warehouse (UK) Ltd 06372196 Live Flue And Ducting Limited 07624215 Live Direct Home Stores Ltd 08270829 Live Direct Stoves Ltd 06746755 Dissolved New World Innovations Limited 05136213 Dissolved Live and Trading with good credit score Live and Trading with good credit score Live and Trading with good credit score No accounts filed Dissolved November 2010 Dissolved November 2010 Comments/Observations 3k of CCJ's, negative net worth, overdue with returns and accounts. ROSI Entries. No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? £‐81k Net Worth, £‐81k Shareholders Funds No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – Printed Merchandise Limited could actually be very quickly resurrected any day by simply filing the necessary documentation to prevent dissolution. Nevertheless do watch out for any new companies associated with this director. Message to Adam John Leah – come on Mr Leah, along with your colleague previously mentioned, given your other live trading companies don’t you think you should be doing the right thing here? File the paperwork and clear any outstanding debts to industry suppliers. [email protected] for suggestions/proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Printed Merchandise Limited – as previously noted succeeds in failing all five of Key Failure Indicators for distributors. High Risk. Axon Fireplaces Ltd ‐ non industry? Fails three indicators. Fireplace Warehouse Ltd – non industry? Passes on all indicators, no fails. Appliance Warehouse (UK) Ltd – non industry? Fails one indicator. Flue And Ducting Limited – non industry? Only one years accounts filed. Fails three indicators. Direct Home Stores Ltd – non industry? Yet to file any accounts so cannot be analysed. 48
MAHESH TULSIANI (Date of Birth 03/06/1980) ALSO KNOWN AS MAHESH VASHI TULSIANI Region: Greater London Company Bravado Promotions Limited Merchandising Bravado Ltd Number Status 05710824 Insolvent
Status Detail Liquidation July 2009 05235644 Dissolved Dissolved June 2007 Zinc Group Limited Merchandising Bravado Ltd 05082534 Dissolved 05235644 Dissolved
Mr Fixit Europe Limited 05385947 Dissolved
Tulsiani Limited 06461983 Dissolved
White Horse Asset Management Limited Assetrise Limited 06793196 Dissolved
Globeworth Limited 04412465 Live Maantra UK Limited 06133430 Live Rojets Limited 06973078 Live Maycon Limited 08534445 Live 03778424 Live Comments/Observations CCJ’s £20K + Can you supply a copy of the Creditors List to complete our record? Considered a concern only because of the co‐director appointment with Sammiya Sarwar – no detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Dissolved Nothing detrimental to report. Dissolved The name Bravado alone creates concern! No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Dissolved No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Dissolved No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Dissolved No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Live No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Live CCJ £5140 No other detrimental information. Do you know otherwise? Live No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Pre‐Dissolution No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? New Company Formed May 2013. No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – All matters pertaining to Bravado are already well documented previously, so no further comment considered necessary at this time. This simply has to be included in the multiple concerns section for this reason alone. Any relevant information to [email protected] please. Message to Mahesh Tulsiani – Like others mentioned in this document you are invited to endeavour to restore your reputation by compensating those suppliers that lost monies as a result of the liquidation of Bravado Promotions Limited. We accept the demise of this company took place several years ago but time is not an excuse to forget. Rather, it provides an opportunity to redress matters, particularly in light of the apparent successful companies you are currently involved with. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Assetrise Limit Limited – non industry? Fails only one indicator (late filing). Strong company. Globeworth Limited – non industry? Fails one indicator (late filing). Good company. Maantra UK Limited – non industry? Fails only one indicator (late filing). Good company. Rojets Limited – non industry? Fails one indicator (late filing). Pre‐dissolution. Maycon Limited ‐ Yet to file any accounts so cannot be analysed. 49
PAUL JOHN ELTON (Date of Birth 15/04/1981) Region: Essex Company PJ Print Solutions Ltd Number Status 07365504 Live Status Detail Accounts Overdue Elite Design + Print Limited 05002822 Dissolved Dissolved with detrimental info February 2012 Comments/Observations Suspended strike off, possibly due to 1k CCJ Do you currently have any overdue monies? ROSI Entries, £‐3k Net Worth, £3700+ CCJ’s Are or were you owed overdue monies? If you were please let us know. Suppliers – It is obviously not good practice to supply any business on credit that is on the brink of dissolution, much less one that has a history of a common director with a previously dissolved company that closed down without clearing its debts. Any relevant information to [email protected] please. Message to Paul John Elton – All unpaid creditors on both of the above named companies will need to be fully discharged for us to consider removing you from this document. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES PJ Print Solutions Limited – filed only very modest turnover accounts, but already fails three and arguably four of the Key Failure Indicators. Considered High Risk. 50
Directors with one company failure or concern that are potentially still operating in the industry These directors do show some cause for continued concern. The fact they have a failed, often industry‐related, business behind them is obviously not a good sign. It could be that something happened beyond their control, but even so, if you are a creditor of the failed company it is unlikely you would want to deal with the people behind the insolvent company in their new venture. Additionally, even if you did not get caught out by a write‐off the first time around, given that you may now be armed with the knowledge of their previous failure(s), do you really want to be exposing your office to high levels of credit on the new re‐incarnations? Is it likely that the ‘mistakes’ made by the directors first time round will not be repeated at some point with the new company? The directors listed in this category are as follows: KARIM SAMIR SAYKALI (Date of Birth 15/07/1977) Region: BERKSHIRE Company Buyking Limited T/as We Brand It Technology Merchandising Ltd Trade Promotions Limited Pushclean Limited Last Minute Merchandising Limited KSS Property Management Limited Number Status Status Detail 05060689 Insolvent Corporate Voluntary Arrangement June 2013 08455199 Live New Company Comments/Observations Fully addressed already within this document 06195901 Live 08368157 Live 08453263 Live Live and Trading? New Company New Company Formed 02/04/2007. Nothing detrimental to report. Are you owed overdue monies? Formed 21/01/2013 Formed 20/03/2013 08500696 Live New Company Formed 23/04/2013 Formed 21/03/2013 Suppliers – All matters regarding We Brand It have been well documented previously so no further comment considered necessary at this time. Message to Karim Samira Saykali – Should the CVA proposal of 39.3 pence in the £ ultimately be accepted by the creditors of Buyking Limited T/as We Brand I, we hope that you do see it through to its conclusion. However, perhaps you could go further and allocate funds to recompense the creditors more fully after the conclusion of the CVA? We leave the ball in your court Mr Saykali. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Buyking Limited T/as we Brand It – Failed/Fails four out of five (pages 19 to 21) Technology Merchandising Ltd – Yet to file any accounts so cannot be analysed. Trade Promotions Limited – Fails just two indicators on first year’s trading accounts filed. Pushclean Limited – Yet to file any accounts so cannot be analysed. Last Minute Merchandising Limited – Yet to file any accounts so cannot be analysed. KSS Property Management Limited ‐ Yet to file any accounts so cannot be analysed. 51
ERIC CUTHBERT (Date of Birth 29/07/1953) Region: Newcastle‐Upon‐Tyne Company Standard Marketing Limited Number Status 08094495 LIVE Status Detail New Company Therefore Creative Limited 04586078 LIVE Pre‐Dissolution Therefore Design Limited 07017745 Dissolved Dissolved Envision Management Ltd 07971105 Live Pre Dissolution Comments/Observations Do you currently have any overdue invoices? Company formed 06/06/2012, no accounts yet filed ROSI Entries Are you also owed monies? Send us a statement. No accounts ever filed – Do you have any unpaid invoices? Mr Cuthbert resigned May 2012, which pre dates the CCJ’s now registered in Jan and July 2013 on this imminently to be dissolved company Suppliers ‐ We would like to hear from you if you are owed any unpaid monies by one or more of the companies listed in the above table. Please send your information to [email protected]. Message to Mr Cuthbert ‐ If you would like this information to be removed from this document then you need to make sure that all suppliers that are owed monies on all of the above named companies are fully discharged, most notably Therefore Creative Limited. Please get in touch to discuss if you are so minded. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Standard Marketing Limited ‐ Yet to file any accounts so cannot be analysed. Therefore Creative Limited – fails five out of five Key Failure Indicators. Extremely High Risk. GARY JOHN MURTON (Date of Birth 05/09/1955) & GEORGE DENNIS MURTON (Date of Birth 15/04/1931) Region: Greater London Company C‐ME Products Limited Worldwide Ideas Limited Worldwide Ideas Group Holdings Limited House of Lions Ltd Number Status 07532772 Live Status Detail Trading Comments/Observations Nothing detrimental established. Do you have overdue monies owing to you? 03311513 Insolvent Liquidation £234,755 of Claiming Creditors. George May 2010 Murton is/was a director of this company and Worldwide Ideas group Holdings Limited only of the companies listed in this table. Gary Murton associated with all listed. ROSI Entries 03312499 Dissolved Dissolved 2010 Negative net worth at dissolution. Nothing other detrimental established. Do you know otherwise? 07728380 Live Dormant Filing non trading accounts. . Nothing detrimental established. Do you know otherwise? 52
Ordermill Limited Sadarin Limited Inkwell Europe Limited Retail Ideas Limited The Promotional Supply Co. Ltd 02525235 Dissolved Dissolved 2010 Negative net worth at dissolution. Nothing other detrimental established. Do you know otherwise? 00766443 Dissolved Dissolved 2005 Nothing detrimental established. Do you know otherwise? 06056534 Dissolved Dissolved 2010 Nothing detrimental established. Do you know otherwise? 03809767 Dissolved Dissolved 2011 Nothing detrimental established. Do you know otherwise? 02621625 Dissolved Dissolved 2005 Negative net worth at dissolution. Nothing other detrimental established. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – it is noted that the latest trading company of Mr Murton, C‐ME Products Limited, was in a pre‐dissolution state until quite recently. This has since been addressed by the filing of the necessary paperwork, however. Mr George Dennis Murton has now turned 80 so can likely be disregarded for any future credit exposure issues we would think. Message to Gary John Murton – If times are a little better for you under your new banner of C‐
ME Products Limited than they were in 2010 when the demise of Worldwide Ideas Limited occurred, can we suggest that you now make moves to recompense those owed money from the collapse of Worldwide Ideas Ltd. The £234K owed to creditors included a substantial sum contributed by suppliers in the industry. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. We await your response with much interest. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES C‐ME Products Limited – currently fails just three of the Key Failure Indicators but nevertheless, inevitably, has to be considered High Risk given the director’s history. House of Lions Ltd – filing non trading accounts so cannot be analysed. MISS CAROLYNNE ANNE PRIESTLEY (Date of Birth 11/05/1970) Region: WEST YORKSHIRE Company Simba Promotional Products Limited Fruit Promotional Products Limited Climate Recruitment Limited Number Status 07697747 LIVE Status Detail Live and Trading 05773254 Insolvent Liquidation May 2010 07435044 Dissolved Dissolved No Accounts Filed Comments/Observations Do you currently have any overdue invoices? ROSI Entries. Failed distributor – creditors claims just over £41,000 No detrimental information identified. Are you owed any monies? If so email us a statement. Suppliers ‐ This failed distributor had creditors of over £41,000 when it entered liquidation. It is likely that the true figure is probably higher due to some creditors not having formally registered their claim. Message to Carolynne Anne Priestley ‐ We invite you to consider taking positive actions towards compensating those suppliers that lost monies on the liquidation of Fruit Promotional Products Limited. We will provide a favourable mention within the next version release of this 53
document if you decide to do so. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Simba Promotional Products Limited – after filing of first year’s trading accounts has managed to very quickly fail all five of the Key Failure Indicators. High Risk. MR MARC RUSSELL PENN (Date of Birth 10/09/1968) MRS MICHELLE PENN (Date of Birth 25/12/1972) Region: CORNWALL Company Number Status Status Detail Comments/Observations Pink Shrimp Limited 05240478 LIVE Live ‐ trading? Negative shareholder funds Blue Fish Business 04613646 Insolvent Liquidation Creditors Claims of £149K+ Promotions Limited March 2013 Suppliers – Our thoughts and comments with regards to Marc Penn are already fully addressed earlier within this document. Message to Marc Penn ‐ Please continue your quest to recompense your creditors. You are setting a personal benchmark on integrity and the standard that others should be encouraged to follow. We hope you see it through. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Pink Shrimp Limited – technically fails four out of five indicators but we are advised that it is not going to be trading with suppliers on credit, either now or in the foreseeable future. NICHOLAS JOSEPH STERN (Date of Birth 13/07/1963) & STEPHANIE GABRIELLA STERN (Date of Birth 03/06/1964) Region: HERTFORDSHIRE Company JSM Promotions Limited Promo UK Limited The Promo Warehouse Limited Number Status 08441611 Live Status Detail Comments/Observations New Company Formed 12/03/2013. No detrimental information yet identified. No accounts filed. Are you owed overdue monies? 04623551 Live Pre Dissolution Last accounts filed to 30/06/2011 suggest this company is not trading. Company owns/owned 50% of The promo Warehouse Limited by shareholding. Do you know otherwise? Are you owed any monies? 03389234 Insolvent Liquidation Claiming Creditors with losses £88K March 2013 approximately. Already well documented previously. Suppliers – This has already been covered previously. 54
Message to Nicholas Joseph Stern & Stephanie Gabriella Stern – Could you be persuaded to take the ethical stance and allocate funds to compensate the creditors of The Promo Warehouse Ltd? It would be a hugely welcomed move if you did. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES JSM Promotions Limited – new company with no accounts filed, so unable to analyse. High Risk all the same given recent demise of The Promo Warehouse Limited. Promo UK Limited – not really considered as relevant but fails three indicators. ANDREW DAVID PALMER (Date of Birth 25/11/1963) & ELIZABETH PALMER (Date of Birth Unknown) Region: Somerset Company Strategic Marketing Solutions Limited Number Status Status Detail 05202273 Dissolved Dissolved August 2012 Access Performance Solutions Limited 07569822 Live Somerset Community Foundation 04530979 Live Live / Trading with good credit score Live / Trading with good credit score Comments/Observations ROSI Entries. Elizabeth Palmer has an appointment on this company only. Suppliers are you to owed unpaid monies from this now dissolved company? No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – Not seemingly operating in the industry but given Mr Palmer’s other unblemished business interests it is somewhat disappointing that he has not chosen to do the right thing and clear the debts owed to suppliers before allowing Strategic Marketing Solutions Limited to be dissolved. Message to Andrew David Palmer & Elizabeth Palmer – There is still the opportunity to be removed from this document by simply clearing all unpaid creditors of Strategic Marketing Solutions Limited. Please get in touch if you are so minded. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Access Performance Solutions Limited – fails on just one Key Failure Indicator. Somerset Community Foundation – not considered relevant, so not analysed. 55
GERALD ANTHONY BOLT (Date of Birth 03/03/1945) & DEBORAH RACHEL BOLT (Date of Birth 20/07/1948) Region: Devon Company G A Bolt Limited Number Status 08117082 Live Riverside Court Flats Management Limited 365 Promotions Limited 02448725 Simon Mcbride Images Limited 02572758 Peninsula Press Limited 02645096 Kids Fit Camp Ltd 05528083 Dissolved Dissolved February 2009 05809654 Dissolved Dissolved May 2009 02669405 Dissolved Dissolved July 2011 04432604 Status Detail No accounts filed Live Live with good credit score Resigned Dissolved with detrimental info January 2012 Dissolved Dissolved November 2008 Dissolved June 2004 Comments/Observations No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? £3k CCJs, £‐17k Working Capital. Deborah Bolt’ solely appointed as a director on this company only (Gerald Bolt on all). ROSI Entries. No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? Bookmarks Of Distinction Limited West Country Book Club Limited Suppliers – We are not certain whether G A Bolt Limited is currently operating within the promotional goods industry or otherwise. If you can confirm this for us then please do so. Message to Gerald Anthony Bolt and Deborah Rachel Bolt – We invite you to fully discharge your incurred debts to promotional goods suppliers on 365 Promotions Limited. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES G A Bolt Limited – No accounts filed so unable to analyse. Riverside Court Flats Management Limited ‐ not considered relevant, so not analysed. RAYMOND WILLIAM EYRE (Date of Birth 26/01/1961) ALSO AT COMPANIES HOUSE AS RAYMOND EYRE Region: WORCESTERSHIRE/WARWICKSHIRE Company Orchard Clothing Limited Number Status 07503937 Live Status Detail Trading? Bearing fruit? Triangle Property Developments Limited 05195329 Dissolved Dissolved 56
Comments/Observations Formed 24/01/2011. Filed dormant accounts for period ending 31/01/2012. Do you know otherwise? Last accounts date 31/08/2007 before dissolution. Nothing detrimental to report. Do you know otherwise? J.M.R Leisure Limited 03168472 Dissolved Dissolved Fetherston Grange Residents Association Ltd 01728764 Live Trading Last accounts date 16/03/1997 before dissolution. Nothing detrimental to report. Do you know otherwise?? Not considered relevant for the purposes of this document – resigned in 1999. Presumably Mr Eyre has moved? Suppliers – You will spot that there is no detrimental information highlighted in red in the above table, and it was very much borderline whether to include this at all as it is only a ‘semi‐
concern’ really. The possible relationship of Mr Eyre to the liquidated company The Orchard Trading Company (UK) Limited is ultimately what made us include it – Sarah Eyre and Deborah Anne Hull were combined majority shareholders of the same, whilst DAVID OLIVER CORDELL HULL was the sole director. Message to Raymond William Eyre – Please get in touch should you wish to clarify the various director appointments/shareholder relationships between Orchard Trading (UK) Limited, Orchard Trading Limited and other associated companies. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Orchard Clothing Limited – unable to analyse due to dormant accounts only filed. RICHARD MICHAEL SAVAGE (Date of Birth 05/02/1955) Region: London Company Wenlock Basin Houseboat Company Limited Number Status 01617687 Live Tradewinds Merchandising Company Limited 01595185 Insolvent The Origo Distribution Company Limited Wilde Oscar Limited 03153574 Dissolved Attitudetolife.Com Limited 03961764 Dissolved 03565101 Dissolved Status Detail Live/Trading with good credit score Liquidation September 2011 Dissolved August 2012 Dissolved August 2012 Dissolved October 2009 Comments/Observations No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? £459k Claiming Creditors with losses – one of the more substantial failures in recent years No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – Just one failure/concern associated with this director but it was substantial. Extreme care is advised should Mr Savage propose any credit dealings with you on the currently live Wenlock Basin Houseboat Company Ltd, or indeed any other future company that he is appointed to. Message to Richard Michael Savage – A substantial sum written‐off by suppliers of Tradewinds Merchandising Company Limited, Mr Savage, many of whom are still finding it hard to withstand such losses. Can you make any move towards mitigating their pain? We await any response with much interest. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Wenlock Basin Houseboat Company Limited – not considered relevant. Not analysed. 57
JAN MARIE OSGOOD (Date of Birth 16/05/1956) Region: London Company John Russell Architectural Limited Number Status 03419871 Live Wenlock Basin Houseboat Company Limited 01617687 Live Tradewinds Merchandising Company Limited 01595185 Insolvent The Origo Distribution Company Limited Wilde Oscar Limited 03153574 Dissolved Attitudetolife.Com Limited 03961764 Dissolved 03565101 Dissolved Status Detail Live /Trading good credit score Live /Trading good credit score Liquidated September 2011 Dissolved August 2012 Dissolved August 2012 Dissolved October 2009 Comments/Observations No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? £459k Claiming Creditors with losses – one of the more substantial failures in recent years No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – Just one failure/concern associated with this director, but it was substantial and extreme care is advised. Should Ms/Miss/Mrs Osgood propose any credit dealings with you on the currently live Wenlock Basin Houseboat Company Ltd or John Russell Architectural Limited, or indeed any other future company that she is appointed to, we recommend caution. Message to Jan Marie Osgood –Our request to you is similar to that made to your former co‐
director in the failed Tradewinds Merchandising Company Limited ‐ please consider making arrangements to compensate the creditors. We await any response with much interest. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Wenlock Basin Houseboat Company Limited – not considered relevant. Not analysed. John Russell Architectural Limited – not industry? Fails just one indicator (not considered relevant) PAUL RILEY HAYDOCK (Date of Birth 16/05/1984) Region: Greater Manchester Company Myparceldelivery.Com Limited Ascendo Investments Limited Xenon‐54 Limited Diverse Media Limited Number Status 07082684 Live Status Detail Trading with good credit score 06795115 Dissolved Dissolved December 2011 06062600 Insolvent Liquidation April 2012 07417043 Dissolved Dissolved June 2012 58
Comments/Observations No detrimental evidence. Are you owed any overdue monies currently? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? 26k Claiming Creditors with losses No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – It is a little worrying that for the sake of £26K, this director, alongside David John Michael Grimes, allowed his record to be blemished with Xenon‐54 Limited. Message to Paul Riley Haydock ‐ £26K of Creditors from 2012. Given that you are seemingly running relatively successful businesses currently, we ask you, like many others, to consider making arrangements to ensure that the Xenon‐54 Ltd creditors are compensated. Your reputation would benefit strongly. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Myparceldelivery.Com Limited – industry? Fails just one indicator if it is. DAVID JOHN MICHAEL GRIMES (Date of Birth 29/09/82) Region: Greater Manchester Company Myparceldelivery.Com Limited Ascendo Investments Limited Xenon‐54 Limited Diverse Media Limited Media Chi Limited Number Status 07082684 Live Status Detail Trading with good credit score 06795115 Dissolved Dissolved December 2011 06062600 Insolvent Liquidation April 2012 07417043 Dissolved Dissolved June 2012 06702197 Live Non Trading Comments/Observations No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? 26k Creditors No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? Media Chi Productions 06701146 Live Dormant Limited Suppliers – Along with Paul Riley Haydock, this director has allowed his record to be blemished with Xenon‐54 Limited for the sake of £26k. Message to David John Michael Grimes ‐ Given that you are seemingly running relatively successful businesses currently, we ask you, like many others, to consider making arrangements to ensure that the Xenon‐54 Ltd creditors are compensated. Your reputation would benefit strongly. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Myparceldelivery.Com Limited – industry? Fails just one indicator if it is. Media Chi Limited – filing dormant accounts so unable to analyse. Media Chi Productions Limited ‐ filing dormant accounts so unable to analyse. 59
SIMON BASKIND (Date of Birth 25/08/1969) ALSO SIMON LLOYD BASKIND ON LIVE COMPANIES Region: GREATER LONDON / LEEDS Company Centre Room Limited Number Status 06594483 Live Centre Room Online Ltd 08392124 Live Status Detail Trading as The Branding Team New Company Comments/Observations No detrimental information established. Are you owed any overdue monies? Incorporated 7/02/2013. No detrimental information. Do you know otherwise? Baskind Promotions Limited 02576949 Insolvent
43K+ CCJ’s Creditors list pre‐dates our sources – can you supply a copy? Sisushi UK Limited Liquidation July 2008 05902684 Dissolved Dissolved UKCO Limited 05184230 Dissolved Dissolved Hiddenpaw Limited 04066646 Dissolved Dissolved Starergen Limited 04021942 Dissolved Dissolved Carlton International Trading Limited Formglow Limited 03381736 Dissolved Dissolved Sisushi Limited 04896200 Dissolved Dissolved Baskind Imaging Limited 03671362 Dissolved Dissolved Negative Net Worth £37K at last accounts prior to dissolution. No other detrimental information. Are/were you owed monies? No accounts ever filed. No detrimental information. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental information established. Do you know otherwise? Negative Net Worth £233K last accounts prior to dissolution. Also CCJ £504. No other detrimental information. Are/were you owed monies? Negative Net Worth £310K last accounts prior to dissolution. No other detrimental information. Are/were you owed monies? 03123715 Dissolved Dissolved Suppliers –Simon “Lloyd” Baskind is registered at Companies House on the top two companies in the table only, as opposed to just Simon Baskind. The current operating company Centre Room Limited looks in pretty good shape and there are nothing other than minor concerns noted therein ‐ however, the liquidated Baskind Promotions Limited also looked in good shape prior to its demise. Message to Simon Lloyd Baskind – if things are currently going well, Mr Baskind, could now be the time to make the necessary arrangements to clear your name and reputation by a personal gesture towards the supplier write‐offs suffered on Baskind Promotions Ltd? Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. PS – Should you wish to respond to this document in some way, may we suggest you do so in writing. ‘Interesting’ though some of the previous phone conversations involving you have been, we feel that we must remind you that many companies do these days record phone calls as a matter of course within their processes! KEY FAILURE INDICATORS ON LIVE COMPANIES Centre Room Limited – Fails just one indicator. Overall profile strong. Centre Room Online Ltd – New company. No accounts filed. Unable to analyse. 60
Directors who do not currently have any live appointments but still have business failure history The worst of these are those directors with a history of multiple failures and concerns. As noted previously the more red you see in the tables that follow, the higher the risk of dealing with these people. There are also directors in this category that have a single industry failure and do not currently appear to be a director of any other company (if you know otherwise please do advise us – [email protected]). It is presumed that these people have either retired or returned to normal employment, either outside of the industry altogether, or as an employee of another distributor. At this stage we do not intend to spend time on all these circumstances purely because without any existing industry involvement they are not presently a direct credit threat to industry suppliers. The names listed below, however, are certainly ones to watch out for should they form companies in the future and return to the industry: KENNETH PAUL GREENWAY (Date of Birth 27/01/1952) Region: OXFORDSHIRE Company Phil Stone Marketing Limited Funprint.Com Limited Starnet Europe Limited Designer House Limited Network Screen Printing Limited The T‐Shirt Company Limited Beatlemania Ltd. Premium Promotion Services Limited William Johnson & Sons (London) Limited Edward Briscoe Design Limited Number Status Status Detail 06329872 Insolvent Liquidation November 2010 03914177 Dissolved Dissolved with detrimental info October 2009 03785148 Dissolved Dissolved May 2007 03584272 Dissolved Dissolved May 2007 03558629 Dissolved Dissolved May 2007 03203258 Dissolved Dissolved October 2009 03097896 Dissolved Dissolved July 2010 02818290 Dissolved Dissolved with detrimental info July 2010 02470218 Dissolved Dissolved 01113836 Dissolved Dissolved Comments/Observations £58k Claiming Creditors with losses. £12k CCJ's. £1k CCJ, £‐36k Working Capital Are you still owed any monies? Please send copy invoice or statement if you are. No detrimental evidence established. Do you know different? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know different? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know different? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know different? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know different? £‐27k Net Worth & Shareholders Funds Are you still owed any monies? Please send copy invoice or statement if you are. No detrimental evidence established. Do you know different? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know different? Suppliers ‐ As far as we can tell, Mr Greenway is not currently the director of a live company. He is certainly one to keep an eye on though in case he rears his head again within the industry. Message to Kenneth Paul Greenway – With no apparent live business interests going forwards it is difficult to suggest any goodwill gesture you might make to the industry suppliers who lost monies on the above businesses. One thing is for certain, though, if you do, we will be happy to highlight this in V.2 of this document. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. 61
PAUL TIMOTHY MARTIN (Date of Birth 17/12/1956) Region: NORTH YORKSHIRE Company Panache Promotions Limited Coleprint Limited Number Status Status Detail 05447960 Insolvent Liquidation March 2011 02125816 Insolvent Receivership 2005 Martin Shelton Group Plc 01810247 Dissolved Dissolved Martin Shelton Limited 01810141 Dissolved Dissolved The Personal Management System Company limited 03015891 Dissolved Dissolved Comments/Observations Claiming Creditors with losses of £76K approximately. ROSI Entries Value of Claiming Creditors Unknown. Can you provide this information from your archives? [email protected] Last filed accounts made up to 31/03/2004 with a pre‐tax loss of £1.28 million and a negative net worth of £378,000 from a turnover of £ 6 million plus. Were you owed any monies? Last filed accounts made up to 31/03/2004 which illustrated a pre‐tax loss of £ 1.4 Million approximately. Were you owed any monies? Last filed accounts to 31/03/2004. No detrimental information identified. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – There are 4 questionable histories against Mr Martin’s name and so this must be of concern with regard to any credit dealings with him in the future. Message to Paul Timothy Martin – With no apparent live business interests going forwards it is difficult to suggest any goodwill gesture you might make to the industry suppliers who lost monies on the above businesses. One thing is for certain, though, if you do, we will be happy to highlight this in V.2 of this document. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. STEPHEN ANTHONY HARRIS (Date of Birth 24/12/1958) & LESLEY SUZANNE HARRIS (Date of Birth 12/05/1961) Region: GREATER LONDON Company 0800 Promote Limited Number Status Status Detail 03887373 Insolvent Liquidation August 2010 Sol Schaverien and Sons Limited 00276469 Insolvent Receivership before Dissolved 62
Comments/Observations Claiming creditors losses of £225K + Lesley Harris is a director of this company and 0800 PROMOTE (LONDON) LIMITED only of the companies in this table. Stephen Harris is a director of all except 0800 PROMOTE (LONDON) LIMITED. ROSI Entries. Latest accounts filed were for period ending 31/05/1991 with advised a pre‐
tax loss of £ 889,000 – exact value of creditors unknown as it pre‐dates our access to this information. Please provide a copy from your archives if you still have the same and we will update this entry Macetrend Limited 03495528 Dissolved Dissolved Brolly Weather Advertising Limited 02424515 Dissolved Dissolved No Agent No Fee Limited 03970140 Dissolved Dissolved B2B Contacts Limited 05245445 Dissolved Dissolved Noagentnofee.com Limited 04715256 Dissolved Dissolved Sunnyfield Properties Limited 05701798 Dissolved Dissolved U Niche Retail (UK) Limited 03633946 Dissolved Dissolved Community Barnet 03554508 Live O800 Promote (London) Limited 05528385 Dissolved Dissolved Trading with a £’s value…we will be suitably impressed if somebody has it). Email [email protected] for a special prize! Last filed accounts made up to 30/04/2001, negative net worth of £4,000. Are you owed any further monies? Last filed accounts made up to 31/08/1998, negative net worth of £24,000. Are you owed any further monies? No accounts ever filed. No evidence of any detrimental information associated. Do you know otherwise? Last filed accounts made up to 30/09/2005. We could find no evidence of any detrimental information. Do you know otherwise? Last filed accounts made up to 31/03/2007. We could find no evidence of any detrimental information. Do you know otherwise? Last filed accounts made up to 31/03/2009. We could find no evidence of any detrimental information. Do you know otherwise? No accounts ever filed. No evidence of any detrimental information associated. Do you know otherwise? Mr Harris resigned his directorship on 31/01/2000 which indicates it was his duty/obligation to file the same. Resigned 19/08/2010. Not considered relevant for the purposes of this document – unless of course suppliers can tell us otherwise? Lesley Harris appointed director relevant to this exercise. Dissolved without filing any accounts. No detrimental information. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – Although this business failure is now a couple of years old, the scale of losses overall suggest that we should not just forget it. Message to Stephen Anthony Harris & Lesley Suzanne Harris – Is there any chance that you can find the moral integrity to recompense your creditors, Mr/Mrs Harris, particularly with regards to 0800 Promote Ltd? Please get in touch if you are so minded. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. 63
STEPHEN DAMIEN SMITH (Date of Birth 08/10/1961) Region: KENT/SURREY Company White Horse Marketing Limited Number Status Status Detail 04770216 Dissolved Comments/Observations Dissolved with substantive unpaid monies owing to suppliers. Mr Smith resigned 31/08/2011. ROSI Entries. Suppliers – We stated previously in this chapter that we really do not like the circumstances surrounding the demise of White Horse Marketing limited at all. The jury is out somewhat on Mr Damien Smith, given that he resigned his directorship some six months before the letters were sent to creditors by White Horse Marketing Limited. As covered previously, White Horse Marketing Ltd ceased to trade and wrote to all suppliers during April 2012 advising that the company had simply ran out of money and couldn't get support from the bank. The already formed phoenix company of WH Marketing Limited then began to trade. Mr Smith has no association with this company as far as we can ascertain. Suppliers ‐ we still want to hear from you about any outstanding debts on either White Horse Marketing Limited or W H Marketing Limited. We already have a lot of information on White Horse Marketing Limited but by the release of the next version of this document, we hope to be able to provide an indication of the true scale of the values written off by industry suppliers. Message to Mr Stephen Damien Smith – Please get in touch to let us have your side of the story so that we can report it here V.2 of the document (or even remove you from it altogether). Email [email protected] . JOANNA MARIE DAY (Date of Birth 01/07/1984) Region: London Company Day 2 Day Advertising Ltd Number Status Status Detail 06973477 Insolvent Liquidated January 2013 Comments/Observations 42k Claiming Creditors with losses. ROSI Entries. Suppliers – Seemingly just one appointment thus far, Joanne Day may have left the industry. Perhaps you know. Please advise if you do – [email protected]. Message to Joanne Marie Day – Ms/Mrs Day, you and your colleagues left behind £42K or so of debt earlier this year. If you are now working and/or back on your feet, then please consider taking action towards paying off the suppliers with write‐offs. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. JUSTINE SILBURN (Date of Birth 17/02/1972) Region: Ipswich Company Day 2 Day Advertising Ltd Number Status Status Detail 06973477 Insolvent Liquidated January 2013 Comments/Observations 42k Claiming Creditors with losses. ROSI Entries. Suppliers – Seemingly just one appointment thus far, Justine Silburn may have left the industry. Perhaps you know whether she has done so or not – please advise if you do. Message to Justine Silburn – Ms/Mrs Silburn, you and your colleagues left behind £42K or so of debt earlier this year. If you are now working and/or back on your feet, then please consider taking action towards paying off those suppliers with write‐offs. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. 64
PETER NIGEL ABBOTT (Date of Birth 07/03/1945) Region: Ipswich Company Day 2 Day Advertising Ltd. P.B. Publicity & Associates Limited Number Status Status Detail 06973477 Insolvent Liquidated January 2013 02476296 Dissolved Dissolved with detrimental info 1992 Comments/Observations 42k Creditors ROSI Entries. £‐16k Net Worth Suppliers – No current appointments so has Peter Nigel Abbott now left the industry? Perhaps you know whether he has done so or not – please advise if you do – [email protected]. Message to Peter Nigel Abbott – Mr Abbot, you and your colleagues left behind £42K or so of debt earlier this year. If you are now working and/or back on your feet, then please consider taking action towards paying off those suppliers with write‐offs. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. GEOFFREY BAXTER (Date of Birth 25/09/1953) & CHRISTINE BAXTER (Date of Birth 26/03/1956) Region: Middlesbrough Company Baxter Promotions Limited Number Status Status Detail 04864001 Insolvent Liquidated March 2011 Comments/Observations £32k Claiming Creditors with losses. Suppliers – This husband and wife team left behind £32K of debt. They may not return to the industry but we have included them on this list in case they choose to do so. Message to Geoffrey Baxter and Christine Baxter – Please consider making arrangements to at least make some inroads into the write‐offs you left behind. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. MICHAEL WAVERLEY JAMES CANK (Date of Birth 21/09/1950) Region: Surrey Company The Identity Works Limited Number Status Status Detail 03502860 Dissolved Dissolved with detrimental info September 2012 Comments/Observations £‐10k Net Worth, ROSI Entries Suppliers – We cannot ascertain a current directorship for Mr Cank and so there seems to be no immediate threat. His remains a name to look out for all the same. Message to Michael Waverley James Cank – There remain monies outstanding to suppliers for the above dissolved company. To have your name deleted from this document you will need to ensure that they are fully discharged. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. 65
TIMOTHY ADAM SALTHOUSE (Date of Birth 28/03/1953) Region: London Company Tradewinds Merchandising Company Limited The Origo Distribution Company Limited Wilde Oscar Limited Attitudetolife.Com Limited Number Status Status Detail 01595185 Insolvent Liquidated September 2011 03153574 Dissolved Dissolved August 2012 03565101 Dissolved Dissolved August 2012 03961764 Dissolved Dissolved October 2009 Comments/Observations £459k Claiming Creditors with losses – one of the more substantial failures in recent years No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – Just one failure/concern associated with this director, but of course it was substantial and extreme care is advised should Mr Salthouse appear in the industry once more. Message to Timothy Adam Salthouse – How about a goodwill gesture to the creditors of Tradewinds Merchandising Company Limited ? Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. ELLETHEA MOYA WILSON (Date of Birth 12/01/1974) Region: Sussex Company Number Status Status Detail Fat Dog Promotions Limited 03315830 Insolvent Liquidated August 2011 Fat Dog Limited 07505650 Dissolved Dissolved December 2011 Comments/Observations £81k Claiming Creditors with losses. No detrimental evidence established. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – Seemingly no appointments as things stand but a name to keep an eye out for. Message to Ellethea Moya Wilson – Creditors of £81K from 2011. Please consider doing the right thing personally and put aside some funds to mitigate these supplier losses. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. JAMES HAYWOOD PIDDOCK (Date of Birth 08/04/1972) Region: Sussex Company Number Status Status Detail Fat Dog Promotions Limited 03315830 Insolvent Liquidated August 2011 Fat Dog Limited 07505650 Dissolved Dissolved December 2011 Frazer Haywood Limited 04395634 Resigned Resigned 2008 Smoover Limited 07139081 Resigned Company is non trading 66
Comments/Observations £81k Claiming Creditors with losses. No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? No detrimental evidence. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – Seemingly no appointments as things stand but a name to keep an eye out for. Message to James Haywood Piddock – Creditors of £81K from 2011. Please consider doing the right thing personally and put aside funds to mitigate these supplier losses. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. ALISON MARY BUCKLEY (Date of Birth 16/06/1965) Region: West Yorkshire Company Panache Promotions Limited Number Status Status Detail 05447960 Insolvent Liquidated March 2011 Comments/Observations Claiming Creditors with losses of £76K approximately. ROSI Entries. Suppliers – sole appointment identified. Just one to keep an eye on if she returns to industry. Message to Alison Mary Buckley – Please consider discussing with your former colleagues and directors in Panache Promotions Limited the positive actions that you could take to help towards clearing the debts of Panache Promotions Ltd. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. JULIAN PAUL WANN (Date of Birth 14/06/1970) Region: Cheshire Company Printed Merchandise Ltd Number Status Status Detail 06705384 Pre‐
Voluntary dissolution strike off reqister suspended Comments/Observations 3k of CCJ's, negative net worth, overdue with returns and accounts. ROSI Entries. Suppliers – This company could actually be very quickly resurrected any day by simply filing the necessary documentation to prevent dissolution. Nevertheless do watch out for any new companies associated with this director. Message to Paul Wann – Go on, file the paperwork and clear any debts to industry suppliers. Email [email protected] with any thoughts, suggestions or proposals. ANDREW MARK HERBERT (Date of Birth 07/10/1962) Region: Staffordshire Company Lupine Design Limited Xtreme (UK) Ltd Ossatome Limited HTC Originals Ltd Number Status Status Detail 06279204 Dissolved Dissolved with detrimental info October 2009 03625731 Dissolved Dissolved September 2000 05847236 Dissolved Dissolved June 2007 03627592 Dissolved Dissolved 67
Comments/Observations ROSI Entries. No detrimental evidence established. Are or were you owed overdue monies? If you were please let us know. No detrimental evidence established. Are or were you owed overdue monies? If you were please let us know. No detrimental evidence established. Are Gold Tiger Limited Far Post Ltd September 2007 06585450 Dissolved Dissolved September 2009 06658930 Dissolved Dissolved March 2010 or were you owed overdue monies? If you were please let us know. No detrimental evidence established. Are or were you owed overdue monies? If you were please let us know. No detrimental evidence established. Are or were you owed overdue monies? If you were please let us know. Suppliers – The string of dissolutions from this director prior to the first identification have to cause concern. Please have a look through your historic records and get in touch if you are able to provide further information. [email protected]. Message to Andrew Mark Herbert – To clear your name from this document, please ensure that all industry suppliers that are owed monies by Lupine Design Limited are fully discharged. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. CORY WILLIAM GOODRICH (Date of Birth 18/08/1988 or 08/06/1989?) Region: OVERSEAS ‐ FLORIDA Company U.S. Branding Group Limited Number Status Status Detail 07428809 Dissolved Dissolved Promosoap Solutions Limited 07041694 Dissolved Dissolved Comments/Observations No accounts ever filed. We have evidence that this company was dissolved with unpaid debts to Creditors overdue and owing. Do you also have monies outstanding? If so please send a copy invoice or statement. ROSI Entries No accounts ever filed. No detrimental information. Do you know otherwise? Suppliers – There is the rather unusual situation of Mr Cory Goodrich having two registered birthdays. This has to be cause for concern. There may be completely legitimate reasons for this – but we can’t think of any! Message to Cory William Goodrich – Should you wish to be referred to favourably in V.2 of this document, please ensure that all outstanding debts owing to industry suppliers for all of the above companies are discharged? Please get in touch to open the lines of communication and arrange payment of these debts. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. RICHARD BUTLER (Date of Birth 02/10/1959) Region: Florida, USA Company U.S. Branding Group Limited Number Status Status Detail 07428809 Dissolved Dissolved with detrimental info June 2012 Comments/Observations ROSI Entries. Suppliers – Unlike the Queen and his former co‐director Mr Cody Goodrich, Mr Butler seems to have just one birthday! We are not sure that you will hear from him again but if you do you should treat with extreme caution. 68
Message to Mr Richard Butler – Should you wish to be removed from this document, please ensure that all industry creditors are fully discharged on their current losses pertaining to U.S. Branding Group Limited? Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. COLIN HALSTEAD (Date of Birth 23/01/1957) Region: West Yorkshire Company Fruit Promotional Products Limited Number Status Status Detail 05773254 Insolvent Liquidation November 2010 Comments/Observations £41k of Claiming Creditors with losses. ROSI Entries. Suppliers – Sole appointment identified. A name to keep an eye on if he returns to industry. Message to Colin Halstead – Please consider discussing with your former colleagues the possibility of taking positive actions to pay off the debts of Fruit Promotional Products Limited. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. ROGER THOMAS CARTER (Date of Birth 20/04/1948) Region: Ayrshire Company R.T.C. Advertising Gifts Limited Number Status Status Detail SC095736 Dissolved Dissolved with detrimental info August 2012 Comments/Observations £‐38k Net Worth, £‐38k Shareholders Funds Are you also owed unpaid monies by this now dissolved company? Suppliers – Sole appointment identified. A name to keep an eye on if he returns to industry. Message to Roger Thomas Carter – Please consider discussing with your former colleagues the possibility of taking positive actions to pay off the unpaid debts of R.T.C. Advertising Gifts Limited. Email [email protected] with any suggestions or proposals. Who or What Have We Missed? A number of suppliers have been in the industry for many years; we have not. We do not have the historic knowledge to fully complete this chapter, but with your help we hope to do so going forwards. We are sure there must be more directors that need highlighting here, so please help us identify them. If there is a director or company that you feel should be included in one of the above lists, please let us know. We will analyse the information and background and if we agree that it is (a) sufficiently recent, (b) relevant to this document and (c) merits inclusion, then rest assured it will be included in V.2 of this analysis. Additionally if something is not quite accurate in this document we would like to know. Are we being unfair on any party? Should we be harder on others? With supplier input and your feedback V.2 of this document can be even more comprehensive. Please email [email protected] with any suggestions please. 69
The Most Shameful Director of All? 70
Opinion as to who should be highlighted as the most shameful director of all is subjective, often depending upon the extent of the damage done to a supplier. However, sometimes there is universal agreement, and I think we have it here! Step forward into the spotlight, Mr Alan Weston of Leicestershire! Yes, we have decided that Mr Weston warrants a whole chapter in this document. We hope and expect that several more parties (both suppliers and distributors) will come forward with reports of additional grievances, given that so much of the information noted has only come to light in very recent times. Our information has been formatted in the same way as the previous chapter on individual directors with history, but in truth it is the content of the narrative that follows that contains the most shocking elements pertaining to Mr Weston. ALAN WESTON (Date of Birth 24/05/1984) ALSO ALAN JAMES WESTON AT COMPANIES HOUSE Region: LEICESTER Company Watch N Play Limited Number Status 08565500 Live Status Detail New Company Comments/Observations Formed 12/06/2013 – EXTRA CARE ADVISED ON ALL MATTERS SURROUNDING ALAN WESTON 8th Wonder Merchandise Ltd Promoprods Limited 06794022 Live Pre‐
Dissolution Pre‐
Dissolution £29K + of reported CCJ’s, ROSI entries DX2 Promotions Limited 06152851 Mr Weston resigned his directorship on 28/11/2008, which in our opinion will probably have saved any company suppliers a lot of money! 07205830 Live £40K + of reported CCJ’s, Multiple entries on ROSI Suppliers – Some of the things you will read below are amongst the most worrying we have come across in this industry. This man is at best a liar and a cheat ‐ we have no hesitation in both stating it in writing and also repeating it over and over again. At worst he is little more than a blatant fraudster. Message to Alan (James) Weston – Remove yourself from the promotional goods industry with immediate effect, Mr Weston. We will be stressing to all suppliers and distributors that they should refuse to provide you with credit under any circumstances in future. The various industry forums will no doubt ensure that this message is echoed way beyond the circulation of this document. It is our intention to ensure that you are reported to and investigated by both the DTI and y the Office of Trading Standards during the coming weeks/months. You will be asked no doubt to provide your medical records and also proof of the sad passing of so many members of your family within such a short space of time. Indeed we very much invite you to provide this office with evidence of your supposed medical condition and any other information in support of the difficult personal times you have been experiencing. We honestly do hope that none of the purported disasters that you have assured numerous parties are true, have indeed occurred. We would not wish such apparent hardship upon anybody. Fortunately, however, your penchant to both lie and cheat the industry generally suggests that we should not overly concern ourselves. 71
If the recent personal disasters that have allegedly beset you are truthful (including your brain tumour and the sad passing of one, two or three children), then we feel nothing but disgust at your decision to use such tragic events as a means to cheat both honourable suppliers and distributors within the promotional goods industry. Mr Weston, you are quite simply a disgrace to the word director and should the personal events you have used to carry out your actions subsequently be found to be untruthful, then you are also a disgrace to the human race. Harsh words we know, but justified! Suppliers ‐ You are probably thinking by now, “Oh my God, what has this guy done? Here’s a summary of what we are presently aware of: Promoprods Limited This company is technically live at Companies House, but in a pre‐dissolution state having not filed its accounts. It is our understanding that it is/was originally operating as a distributor, but there are several areas of grey whereby it seemingly overlaps as a supplier and also with 8th Wonder Merchandise Limited. Promoprods Limited now has £40K plus of recorded CCJ’s and multiple entries on the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) – a system that provides early warning alerts to suppliers about unpaid debt information. There are innumerable lies and broken payment promises associated with these ROSI entries, with Mr Weston’s purported health and prolonged hospital visits (alleged brain tumour) being regularly used as an excuse for non‐payment. 8th Wonder Merchandise Limited This company is also currently live at Companies House, also in a state of pre‐dissolution for non filing of accounts. It is our understanding that it originally operated as a supplier in the industry, but once again we think there now may be overlap with Promoprods Limited in this regard and thus it may also be operating as a distributor. 8th Wonder Merchandise Limited has £29K plus of CCJ’s recorded against it and inevitably there are entries on the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) with a pattern of broken payment promises against them (as per Promoprods Limited). If £69K of losses on two failed/failing companies that began trading in 2009 and 2010 does not seem too outrageous, please read on. USB Sticks at favourable prices! If something appears to be too good to be true then it generally is. During June and July of 2013 using the joint banner of 8th Wonder Merchandise Limited and Promoprods, Mr Weston has ‘in a supplier capacity’ promoted some very favourable USB prices to distributors, usually by email. The first reported email offering was during June of 2013 and we are aware that this continued into July 2013. (We would like to hear from anybody who has information that it pre‐dates June 2013) Please email us at [email protected] with any information you think may help. 72
After having obtained interest in his supposedly well‐priced USB Sticks, Mr Weston takes the order and then tries TO GET THE DISTRIBUTOR TO PAY UP FRONT. He relies on the fact that a number of distributors will not check out 8th Wonder Merchandise Limited (nor Promoprods) as most distributors do not think to check out suppliers with deadlines and pressures looming. So, the distributor places the order, and this in turn prompts a phone call from Mr Weston requesting the monies for the order be paid into a bank account, the details of which he provides within the phone call. Money is paid but the USB sticks never arrive! We know of one distributor who had a slight reservations and so proposed to pay by credit card Mr Weston initially said that this would be no problem but then rang another person within the accounts department of the distributor company shortly afterwards to advise that his credit card terminal was down and that if he was to get this order through in time ‘from his far east suppliers’ he was going to need the money to pass onto them that same day. Sadly the payment of £1500 was made by bank transfer (there is at least one other very similar example of this happening with approximately £3000 being lost). We are left with an embarrassed distributor that is out of pocket and a disgruntled end user without their USB sticks. The user, understandably, blames the distributor and the reputation of the industry is further damaged. The relationship between distributor and end‐user has been badly strained if not lost altogether. It could cost the distributor a major customer and this in turn will cost suppliers. This is solely due to the fraudulent actions of Mr Weston and his companies. Remember that USB’s are just the current ‘vehicle of choice’ for Mr Weston – it could be many other products just as easily once he has exhausted the market in this area. The Underlying Messages: Whilst the above example relates to the distributor and end‐user relationship, it is still clear that systems need to be in place with all companies to prevent such situations from happening. 1. Monitor suppliers almost as much as customers, particularly if asked to pay anything up front. You are extending credit in the same way as you would to a customer – there is no difference to the checks that you should undertake before doing so. 2.
NEVER, EVER deal with Alan Weston in any capacity whatsoever. He is a liar and a cheat and cannot be trusted under any circumstances. 3. Keep your eyes on the BPMA and other industry forums – there are several distributors who have been caught out well after the information was out there to prevent it. 4.
Always thoroughly check out any party that you are asked to send money to up front before you do so. A Company to very much watch out for: You will have noted from the table above that Mr Weston has a new company formed on 12th June 2013 called Watch N Play Limited (company number 08565500). Given the history surrounding Promoprods Limited and 8th Wonder Merchandise Limited, we would suggest that you have no dealings with this company. However, there is no detrimental information recorded against it in isolation… yet! So having read all this, do you agree that Mr Weston qualifies as the Most Shameful Director of All? 73
New or Recently Formed Distributors
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We live in a country where a party is presumed innocent until proved guilty and yet the reverse is commonly applied to both a distributor’s dealings with an end user and a supplier’s dealings with a distributor. We are talking about the inbuilt defence mechanism of ‘pro‐forma’ and believe that this industry standard policy might well be unnecessarily stunting the growth of the promotional goods industry across the board (more on this later on within this section). Statistically, the chances of a company going out of business within 30 days of a supply is very much in favour of the supplier, subject of course to the directors of that company having no previous history of running failed companies behind them. Many suppliers still make errors, by supplying people that they shouldn’t. This can be due to inadequate research or perhaps, in the case of a supplier to distributor relationship, they don’t follow their own misgivings and continue to make credit decisions based on credit reports alone. An initial few will always be caught out by the likes of Alan Weston or Sammiya Sarwar but with adequate vetting systems in place there is no need for the problem to spread. It is also worth remembering that the length of time that a business has been running seems to bear no relationship to the risk of it failing – the percentage of distributor failures amongst businesses that have been running for between 0‐5 years is 33.33% , between 5‐10 year is 33.33%, and over 10 years old is also, astonishingly, 33.33%! This appears to show that a two year old distributor has the same chance of failure as a one established for over 10 years. However, there are a far greater number of more established distributors than fledgling ones, and so, actually, trading with established distributors is generally considered a safer bet. A recently formed distributor should really be treated as innocent until proven guilty, unless the directors have ‘previous history’ of business failure and/or are linked to those that have. One of the key problems in establishing the difference between a genuine new ‘innocent distributor’ and one with ‘previous history’ is the difficulty in linking directors by name variations filed at Companies House (see Sammiya Sarwar and Bravado section). In truth, the credit reporting companies generally are not adept at this, and nor are Companies House. It requires background investigation work in most cases to bring such links to light. The situation is worsened to some degree by the Credit Reporting Companies’ policy of automatically awarding all newly formed companies a discretionary £500 to £1000 starting credit limit during their first year of trading. There seems to be no means or worthwhile mechanism to take into account linked directors of previous failed companies, and so the burden of proper vetting before agreeing to an account is passed back to the supplier. There is also a somewhat controversial and interesting aside here when it comes to “fringe distributors” i.e. those whose core business lies outside of the industry. Often these are printers or stationery companies doing some promotional items as a secondary income. Opinion is certainly divided within the industry with criticism seemingly coming from several 100% focused distributors that these parties should not be in the industry whatsoever. There are continued rumblings that suppliers are letting them down generally in facilitating it. Whether this be true or not it is certainly a factor that stationery companies generally operate off lower margins than are traditionally associated with a proper consultant‐style distributors, who in the main provide superior professional advice and guidance to end users. Accordingly driving the prices down and taking the consultant element out of the equation cannot really be a good thing in the end, in our opinion. Successful focused distributors will yield more in the end…but not if they no longer exist! 75
When it comes to printing companies we would suggest that there are also complications that do not help the industry overall. For example when a printer gets a call from an end user to say garnish a stand for a trade show what will his automatic thought be? Naturally we would be most surprised if it was not “what print is required here?”…after all it is his core business. The afterthought is therefore by definition “oh, and what promotional goods do we need to finish it all off”. The bottom line is that there is more focus on print and less on promotional items that in turn may manifest itself into less orders for suppliers! Think about it – is this right for your industry, or might you just be collectively shooting yourselves in the foot as a consequence? In truth we don’t really know either to be honest, but we just ask the question in the circumstances so that you might think about it as a supplier. Naturally despite all of the above there are exceptions to the rule e.g. forward‐thinking stationery companies or printers that set up a designated and focused department dedicated to promotional goods – they may be regarded as distributors with a slightly different banner, provided of course they operate on margins akin to the traditional distributor ones. Coming back to it therefore, let’s consider whether ‘to pro‐forma’ or ‘not to pro‐forma’ new customers. Firstly we will start with the end user dealing with a distributor situation: Now we are an end user ourselves, so here is the story of how we bought our first promotional pens a few years ago. We decided that we could do with some promotional pens and so obtained three quotes from promotional goods distributors, all of which came back roughly within £10 of each other. However, one of those distributors had the foresight to both check out our company and in turn send his credit account application form with the pen quotation, together with an accompanying letter explaining an option to open an account with them and so receive a £500.00 credit limit. By having this foresight, this distributor received the credit application form and our pen order! Additionally this distributor ended up receiving several subsequent orders simply because “we already had an account with them”. You see, we had essentially been subliminally conditioned to somehow now believe that this distributor was our approved supplier for all promotional goods items – food for thought? The main reason that the successful distributor fared better than the other two distributors is that by offering an amount of credit, they appeared to value the enquiry made by us, even though it was a very modest first order. In comparison, those willing to deal in pro‐forma terms only seemed to be offering the minimum service level in comparison and did not receive the business from us as a result. The distributor that won the order was only able to offer credit to us with confidence because he had taken the time to check out the worthiness of our company. So now let’s turn to the new industry distributor looking for suppliers: We will assume here that the party we are talking about does not have ‘previous history’ (If they do, then pro‐forma terms are most applicable). A fresh vibrant distributor business should really be like gold dust to all suppliers. By helping and guiding this new business during the initial stages, a supplier could be developing the foundation of a fruitful relationship for many years to come i.e. conditioning the distributor that you are their pre‐approved supplier of XXX ! Most promotional goods suppliers have just a few direct competitors, and some of these are better than others at making new distributors feel welcome with their first enquiries. How good are you? – Answer the following questions relating to your sales enquiry process:‐ 76
When you get a call from a potential new distributor do you 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Ask them what their background is and how long they have been trading? Establish whether they are a limited company, sole trader or partnership? Provide detail on the format of any artwork? Offer initial help with design and/or artwork support? Provide quotations that essentially mirror the invoice? Generally see the enquiry as a burden? Offer them a discretionary credit limit automatically after doing your research or just take the easy option and automatically apply pro‐forma terms on them instead? Of course we could expand these questions further but by now I am sure you have got the gist. Our recommendation is that suppliers treat new distributors (without history) as if they are the next industry success story. By doing so, a long‐term and profitable relationship is likely to be built. The chance of this happening far outweighs the likelihood of the new distributor falling by the wayside, particularly if they are properly supported in the supplier chain. Consider offering a maximum credit limit of £1000, or just £500 if this is a more comfortable amount. This goodwill gesture may succeed in tying the new distributor to your business quickly, as it did in our own case. You will win many more than you will lose in these situations. If a distributor spent £1000 a month with you for two years but then ran out of money and went bust owing you £1,000, the actual loss is not the £700 (after deduction of your 30% profit) write‐off, but the loss of future business. If the relationship had continued for another two years, £7,200 profit would have been made (24 x £300). This is in comparison to the £700 write‐
off. It is clear that future profit is the largest loss. By not recognising the opportunities that new distributors offer, a supplier runs the risk of missing out on such longer‐term profitable relationships. So don’t always insist on pro‐forma terms with new distributors or it may be your competitors that are left smiling. It must be emphasised again, though, that under no circumstances should credit be offered easily to a new distributor start up with ‘previous history’. If you do offer credit, do so at a substantial premium. High street lenders grade their lending rates based on the profile of a customer – this seems a wise policy. In conclusion, make sure you have the systems in place to properly check out all new customers so that you can establish the risk of supplying on credit. Determine your policy is for new start up or fledgling distributors and stick to it. The BPMA AccountAssyst complimentary credit management health check is as good a place to start. If you are serious about improving your systems, contact [email protected] to take advantage of this offer. Complimentary = totally free of charge! TOP TIP – Several BPMA AccountAssyst subscribers now take their laptop or iPad with them to Trade Shows for when new distributors visit their stand. As a natural part of the conversation they ask for a couple of business cards and whether they can send through a Credit Account Application Form to open an account for them The form is often on the distributors iPhone before they have even left the stand ! Now that is efficiency ‐ all your leads in one place, timed and dated. 77
Some Distributors We Can Be More Positive About 78
It is important to recognise and appreciate those distributors that have invested in robust processes and systems that mitigate the possibilities of write‐offs. They are, of course, putting at risk both theirs and a supplier’s monies when they extend credit to risky end users. Are these distributors completely safe? Of course not, everybody can take an educated risk and/or make a credit mistake from time to time, but ultimately certain distributors have illustrated a willingness to implement high quality solutions that make them stronger generally. By purchasing a BPMA AccountAssyst package, they have recognised their obligations to their suppliers and the value of their own business reputation. The following distributors have engaged in a thorough credit management review process to tighten up their own systems (complimentary to BPMA members) and have purchased the BPMA AccountAssyst package: AD Merchandise Ltd, Manchester Braunston Ltd Creative Emporium, Leeds Drayton Gifts Ltd, Uxbridge Galpeg Limited, NW London Hatters, Manchester Impress Ipswich Max Impression Ltd, Wimbledon Promobox Ltd, Hull Roantree Incentive Marketing Ltd, High Wycombe Stay Sourced Ltd, Leeds Steel City Marketing Ltd, Sheffield Stupid Tuesday Ltd, Wigan The Professional Promotion Co Ltd, Ashby de la Zouche U Name It, Ripon NB – None of the companies listed above are considered High Risk presently (as at 21/6/2013) by the standards of the Key Failure Indicators set out within the Main Analysis section of this document. As with very many distributors, some inevitably fail an occasional trend or two, but not sufficiently for their overall profile to be given a high risk grading (considered to be 4/5 of the Key Failure Indicators). There will be many other distributors that have implemented their own robust lending processes (particularly the larger ones that have the resources to do so), but there still remain many that have yet to do so. Should these be afforded the same level of respect as those distributors that have robust systems in place? One final question in this chapter – based upon what you have read within this document, can you be sure whether are any of the businesses that you deal with are likely to become the next Promo Warehouse Limited, Blue Fish Business Promotions Limited or Buyking Ltd T/as We Brand It? It pays to know sooner rather than later! Grade your distributor customer base against the Key Failure Indicators noted within the Main Analysis section of this document to find out how they measure up, or if you would like this done for you and monitored on an ongoing basis, then email [email protected] to discuss your options further. 79
How You Can Help Both Us and Other Suppliers Going Forwards 80
If you have debts against distributors, why not instruct the approved BPMA resource, Direct Route Collections Limited? By doing so you not only receive zero cost (or subsidised) debt collection but you also be contributing to the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) for the benefit of all suppliers. There is a general reluctance amongst suppliers across all industries to release debt to a third party, often due to some rather misguided loyalty to a so‐called good customer. So please remember these sentences:‐ A truly good customer pays you within a reasonable timeframe, OR if they are not able to do so communicates with you and asks you for help before you have to chase them. They certainly do not ignore you. A good customer does not make your life difficult by not responding to your payment requests for overdue monies. A good customer who asks for extra time to pay e.g. by instalments calls you if they are not able to meet the obligations that you have agreed with them. You do not have to call them. A good customer does not automatically assume that they can abuse the privilege of credit that you offer. If you or I walk past the checkout in a supermarket without paying then that is treated as theft. Therefore if your customer walks past the 30 day credit checkout that you have allowed them, how should you really be feeling? Theft is perhaps a little strong here because of the dilemma we face in operating credit accounts and in turn not wishing to lose business to competitor suppliers. However, we operate in a world in which business to business credit is readily available and yet offence is taken if overdue sums are chased. Wrong with a big W !!! A sale is not a sale when it is invoiced. It becomes a sale only when it is actually paid for. A quality organised supplier has proper systems in place to chase their monies and does so regularly. A quality supplier has a credit management policy for both account‐opening and chasing of all overdue monies. A quality supplier sticks rigidly to their credit management policy, and as a result suffers fewer write‐offs than any of their competitors less adept in this area. A supplier that chases their owed money is more likely to be paid by cash‐challenged distributors than those suppliers that choose not to ask for their money. If we met at a show, would you lend me £700 cash for 30 days without checking me out properly or without a formal agreement between us? So why do so for a distributor customer? Are you a quality supplier with quality distributor customers that operates to the standards above? If you can answer ‘yes’ to that question, that is great. If you can’t, perhaps now is time to do something about it for the benefit of both your own business and of the industry as a whole. Get in touch with [email protected] for your complimentary Credit Management Health Check. 81
How You Can Help Yourself
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If you decide to partner with BPMA AccountAssyst you will not only receive a range of valuable benefits backed up by the implementation of robust systems, you will also receive early warning alerts and access to non payment information on distributors reported into the system by other suppliers. This will allow you to mitigate your own exposure. Additionally any distributors recorded with you will automatically be graded against the distributor Key Failure Indicators and constantly monitored in this regard to highlight industry specific risk. If you are outside of this ‘circle of knowledge’, where do you think the dodgy distributors and associated avoidable write‐offs will ultimately end up? At your own door perhaps? We do not wish suspect distributors on any supplier business, but ‘the passing of the parcel’ to a lesser organised supplier will inevitably become a factor as greater numbers of suppliers recognise the need to buy into stronger processes and as such become part of the club. NB – if you are a supplier that already has BPMA AccountAssyst in place, you might like to note that we are rapidly working towards an automated solution that instantly monitors and highlights any ‘high risk distributors’ for you. Initially we may begin this process manually on a client‐by‐client basis in order to eliminate teething issues and to fully understand how to maximise the opportunity before we begin a full software development update. If you would like us to analyse your distributor clients urgently then please email [email protected] to be placed on the priority list – we are allocating on a first come, first served basis. Expect more news on this in the coming weeks. We will certainly get around to each and every one of you after we have completed the clients that have requested priority action. But don’t expect an extra charge – it’s all just part of the service as far as we are concerned! In conclusion, if you are a responsible supplier please help us to help you in driving dodgy distributors out of the industry. Use a debt collection service that contributes to the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI), put good systems in place and support bona‐fide distributors in any way you can. 83
A Summary of Our Findings 84
When we first sent this document out to our closest associates they almost without exception said that it was just plain too long for most people. Of course we accept this feedback as being merited. Nevertheless we inevitably need to do ‘all the hard yards’ in order to get to the lazy‐mans summary, which in truth is precisely the page you are on now! If you have for some reason skipped straight to this page, then yes, certainly you can of course just read this summary and do no more…ultimately it is your business and your monies that are at stake. It is however our professional opinion that unless you take the time to read the full document and the rationale behind it all then you may very well miss out something quite important ‐ and as we say in the North that will be the ‘law of sod’ that ends up costing you that substantial write‐off. Make your own choice but by now you will gather that we very strongly recommend reading the lot (sorry, but if you truly want to maximise your sales whilst also giving yourself the best chance to avoid bad debt then it is quite simply the only way). For those of you that need a reference point however we have nevertheless prepared the following fifteen key pointers and thoughts: Key Failure Indicators There are 5 key Failure Indicators Identified in the Main Analysis Chapter of this document (pages 4‐16 refer). 1. The lifetime credit report of a distributor at some point should have been elevated above £2,000. If it has consistently £1,000 or less then you are inevitably looking at a weak business. 2. Negative Net Worth/Shareholding within 3 years is a bad sign. 3. Late filing of Companies House documents puts a cross in the box. 4. Entries of any sort on the Register of Outstanding Invoices (ROSI) indicates danger. 5. A credit score of 50 or less within 3 years is highly significant – 100% statistic on failed distributors. In addition to the above you should use common sense to avoid debt generally. Once again, read this document fully to understand the logic behind the previous sentence. Other Recommendations 6. Cross reference the Key Failure Indicators referred to above against your distributor customer list at regular intervals (ideally monitor it 24/7 through something like BPMA AccountAssyst or put equivalent systems into your business internally). 7. If you have not yet got access to early warning data from ROSI then you are unnecessarily exposed. Contact [email protected] to change this. 8. Look at the detailed Case Histories from early 2013 (pages 18‐27). How do these compare with the profile of your customers, particularly the higher exposure ones? 9. Avoid extending any credit whatsoever, if you can, to companies that are run by directors with multiple business failures, within the industry or otherwise. They will more than likely get you in the end, if not the beginning, and sometimes that is their sole intention (refer to pages 28‐51 for more detailed thoughts and guidance). 10. Think very carefully about over extending on credit (if any is offered) to directors that have a previous single company industry failure (pages 51‐60). 85
11. Watch out for returning directors that have industry history, with special attention of course to those with multiple failures behind them (pages 61‐69). 12. Never pay any party up front without first checking them out thoroughly – treat any party that requests advance monies from you in exactly the same way as you would a customer requesting a credit account ‐ it is essentially the same thing (pages70‐73 should tell you why this is so important). 13. Think very carefully about new distributors ‐ both positives and negatives apply. 14. Also consider how organised you really think your distributor customer is – we make the point that those that invest in robust systems are also investing in their business for the longer‐term. In short they are planning for their own future stability…and yours! 15. Lastly, please do think about how you can help others and yourself going forwards. If you read this document and don’t contribute with information and/or generally join in the club environment that we are trying to establish then don’t be surprised when you next get caught out by that questionable or rogue distributor! And very finally, thank you for the taking the time to read this document. We hope that you have found the content to be interesting, informative and most of all, useful in your quest to avoid bad debt going forwards. 86