Two-man delivery firm Network 4 Home Delivery completed a pre-pack deal in June, it has emerged.
The company’s business and assets were sold to connected company Network 4 Home Delivery (UK), which shares common directors Jayson Barrett, Lucie Riley and Vincent Riley, on 4 June after it received notice of a winding up petition by HMRC.
Administrators at Leonard Curtis accepted the management team’s offer of £56,500 for the business and its assets, plus 2.5% of all income over £3m in the first year.
The administrators’ statement of proposals, published to Companies House, revealed that the company posted a £172,000 loss from £1.6m in turnover for the year ended 30 June 2012.
Despite increasing its rates in July 2012, it had fallen behind on payments of VAT, national insurance claims and PAYE. The directors requested a time to pay arrangement as it anticipated an increase in turnover, but the arrangement was rejected by HMRC.
The firm owed £824,307 when it appointed joint administrators Kevin Murphy and Andrew Poxton of Leonard Curtis, including £6,429 to Hiregate vehicle rental; £13,171 to Northgate Vehicle Hire; and £8,959 to Irish furniture haulier W S Dennison.
The firm attempted to increase its profitability and turnover after winning a distribution contract with a major furniture retailer in 2012, beginning in March 2013, but the increase in turnover was not enough to fulfil its obligation to HMRC.
In an attempt to restructure its debts, it also closed its warehouse in Corby and took out larger vehicles on finance deals, which it hoped would reduce costs by increasing the number of deliveries it could make per load.
The directors were unavailable for comment.
