Evesham Go into Liquidation

[pumpman]

Just read this another retailer, Evesham Technology gets into money problems.

source
Evesham Technology goes into liquidation | Channel Register

[staffsMike]

It's been coming for a while unfortunatly. My first pre-built pc back in the day was an Evesham PC. Used to quite like getting my stuff there.

Keep an eye on evesham's ebay shop. There was some 32" HD LCD TV's on there for less than £200 yesterday

[stytagm]

Is this likely to affect LowestOnWeb as well? At the moment the website appears to still be trading?

It'll be a shame if they go, Lowestonweb were worth watching for occasional baragains.

[Lucio]

It's a shame when home grown technology companies go to the wall, but it's the nature of the modern business world that people go for the cheapest and there's more and more education out there for IT so people can build their own.

[joshwa]

Wouldn't it be kind of a bad idea to buy stuff from a company that's about to go into liquidation?

[pumpman]

you would have thought so, I did have a quick look at their Ebay site, and spotted the refurb tellys at £200 ,but this is the crux of why they are in trouble, you buy that it may be fine but in 3 months if it went faulty you cant get back to them, nature of the world now everyone wants something for the cheapest price, you will only see the moans when it goes wrong.
Now where did I put my "how to start a pc shop empire application form"

[merdat]

That's a shame really - they were quite a good company , helped many people get cheap PC's.

[staffsMike]

Is this likely to affect LowestOnWeb as well? At the moment the website appears to still be trading?

It'll be a shame if they go, Lowestonweb were worth watching for occasional baragains.

Probably will put and end to LOW unfortunatly. Bought my GTS there..

[YorkieBen]

again? they went into liquidation in August didnt they?

[staffsMike]

I think they went into administration before.

[Saracen]

Wouldn't it be kind of a bad idea to buy stuff from a company that's about to go into liquidation?

Well, the Consumer Credit Act s75 gives credit companies joint liability, so if you buy (between £100 and £30,000) on CC, maybe not. After all, you may well get VERY good prices, and providing nothing goes wrong, you're laughing. And if it does go wrong, you've still got good, ol' s75.

[Mithrandir]

Bah, gone are the days of bargain new mobos from their ebay site.

[pumpman]

technically administration is where the administrator attempts to pay off the creditors whilst still keeping the company going, if it can't keep the company going then they will sell assets building etc, in order to pay creditors and then if this means liquidating the assets and building and paying off staff then it is called liquidation

[Saracen]

technically administration is where the administrator attempts to pay off the creditors whilst still keeping the company going, if it can't keep the company going then they will sell assets building etc, in order to pay creditors and then if this means liquidating the assets and building and paying off staff then it is called liquidation

Actually, no, it's rather more complex than that.

Liquidation is a process whereby the intent is to sell off assets, pay of creditors and shut the company down. There's essentially three types: creditors voluntary, member's voluntary and compulsory. In the middle (member's) case, the company is solvent and may well be viable, but the owners have decided to pay off creditors, sell the assets, distribute the remainder and cease trading. It's a vehicle for a shut-down, perhaps because the owners are retiring, or moving abroad, or just doing something else.

Rather different to that are creditor's voluntary and compulsory liquidations. The compulsory liquidation comes directly from a court winding up order, issued because a company either can't or won't pay debts, by which I mean either statutory demands (tax bills, etc) or if a court judgement over a debt remains unsatisfied (and is more than £750), and is issued because the court is satisfied the company is insolvent. The Official Receiver oversees the winding up.

Then there's creditors voluntary. In that case, again the initiative comes from directors and shareholders, and it happens because they believe the company is insolvent. It would, of course, be illegal to trade knowing that. So, the company prepares a report, calls a creditors meeting and tries to get creditors to agree to the appointment of a liquidator, which will be an insolvency practitioner, like an accountant, not the Official Receiver.

That's liquidation.

Then there's administrative receivership, which to be honest, is going out of fashion. This is someone appointed by a major creditor (as a result of the power contained in a debenture) as a result of payment default on that debenture. The administrative receiver (who is often sloppily referred to as an administrator) takes over the company and runs in in the interests of the debenture holder who appointed him. Again, it's an insolvency practitioner, not the Official Receiver, and the object of the ad-receiver's work is to get the debenture repaid. If it is, then once satisfied, control goes back to the directors and shareholders, who can then resume normal operations, subject to the company still being solvent, of course.

And then there's "administration", which is not the same as an administrative receivership.

The primary purpose of administration is protection from creditors, while attempts are made to restructure and revive the company, and the overt objective is company survival. Whilst a company is in administration, creditors can't do much. But, and it's a fairly significant but, any debenture holder with the power to appoint an administrative receiver must be notified of the application for administration and can step in and appoint an administrative receiver first. So you need their agreement to go down the administration route. Then, and providing you can satisfy the court, the administration order is granted by the court. This is unlike the administrative receivership which is the debenture holders option and serving their interests, and unlike creditor's voluntary liquidation, where though both creditor's voluntary liquidation and administration are initiated by the company, the former is with a view to liquidation and the latter is explicitly to protect the company from creditor's action, perhaps while a CVA (basically, a debt restructuring program) is organised.

If a company continues to trade while insolvent, the directors may find themselves subject to legal action as a result. If, however, they can put together a proposal that shows a realistic way to get the company out of trouble, meeting debts and still end up trading, then the court will probably agree the administration. Prior to that, a single creditor, and often for fairly small amounts of money, could commence a process that was essentially like pulling out a bottom card from a house of cards, with the result that the whole edifice collapsed .... and often entirely unnecessarily. Administration provides a breathing space, where the court protects the company by preventing creditor actions (and freezing existing ones) while the "restructuring" takes place.

Administration is broadly similar in scope and objective to the US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It's designed to prevent companies that could be saved being taken down by what may well be short-sighted and self-interested action by creditors provided realistic scope for getting out of the mess exists.


Anyone still awake out there?

Helloooo?

[Saracen]

Interestingly, their website still seems to be active. It let me specify a system, customise it, and checkout, where I got as far as "Create New Account", which was working. It would be interesting to know if it would have taken my payment .... but I wasn't about to try it to find out. One wonders, however, about people that haven't read the news.

[ikkitousen]

Actually, no, it's rather more complex than that.

Anyone still awake out there?

Helloooo?

That seriously was one of the best posts i've read all day seriously!

My next section of my business coursework is all about solvency and liquidation!

But how the hell did you remember all that!!!