Harrogate Steel Company enters administration

A Nidderdale steel firm has gone into administration, according to official documents.

Harrogate Steel Company Ltd, which is based on Mill Hurst Business Park just outside Dacre, was founded by Dan Worsell and Richard Searle in 2016.

Mr Searle stepped down as a director at the end of 2023. 

The company, whose website says it is “big enough to trust but small enough to care”, offers in-house design, fabrication and installation services for construction projects as far afield as Bristol and London.

Local projects have included the construction of Paradise restaurant at Daleside Nurseries in Killinghall, and the filming gantry above the Barclay LED stand at Harrogate Town AFC. 

According to the latest available accounts for the company, in the year to the end of December 2022, the business employed an average of 28 employees.

It owed creditors more than £1 million and had net assets totalling just over £270,000.

Online public records journal The Gazette said Andrew Ryder of County Antrim-based insolvency practitioners JT Maxwell was appointed administrator on April 10.

The Stray Ferret has attempted to contact Harrogate Steel Company.

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No 1: The biggest firms to run into trouble in 2023

In this article, which is part of a series on the 12 stories in the Harrogate district that shaped 2023, we look at some of the larger companies that ran into difficulties over the year.

What could loosely be termed “economic headwinds” have caused trouble for thousands of companies around the UK in recent years, and in 2023 the storm hit several large local employers. 

Some were rescued, but others sank without trace. Here, we take another look at some of the bigger companies that hit the rocks over the last 12 months. 

Amvoc

Back in March, as many as 230 people lost their jobs after Harrogate telemarketing company Amvoc crashed into administration.  

Amvoc’s clients included some big names, such as BP, Barclays and Virgin Media, as well as the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. 

But administrator Gareth Lewis, of Lewis Business Recovery and Insolvency, said in his report that the company had entered into a company voluntary arrangement in 2017 due to “cash flow difficulties” because of the loss of a major customer and “significant bad debt”. 

Picture of Amvoc's head office on Cardale Park in Harrogate.

Amvoc’s former head office on Cardale Park in Harrogate.

Amvoc paid off the bad debt, but only just in time for the start of the covid pandemic. The company, which had unusually high staff turnover – 20 to 30 employees left and started each month – couldn’t cope with lockdown, and even after restrictions were eased, its offices were closed by Public Health England in August 2020 after 50 staff contracted coronavirus. 

Meanwhile, many of Amvoc’s customers held back on projects due to uncertainty caused by the pandemic, leading to an unsustainable trading position. 

Farmison

In April, high-end butcher Farmison went into administration, threatening the jobs of its 100 or so employees. This time, though, the story had a happier outcome.  

The Ripon-based firm, which was founded by John Pallagi and Lee Simmons in 2011, had an impressive client list that included Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges and Michelin starred restaurants. 

Photo of a joint of beef on the butcher's block at Farmison in Ripon.

Major cashflow problems saw it fall into administration with debts of £7 million, but it was quickly bought out of administration by a consortium led by Andy Clark, former chief executive of Asda, for an undisclosed sum. 

Farmison is now back in business, with a leaner staff of 60 under former Marks & Spencer managing director Andy Adcock as chief executive. It relaunched its Cut by Farmison butcher’s shop at its Ripon headquarters earlier this month, plans to open more shops in a bid to diversify, and aims to increase annual turnover to £20 million. 

Black Sheep Brewery

Challenging economic conditions were also behind the difficulties that corralled Black Sheep Brewery into administration in May. 

The Masham company headed off what it called a “local employment catastrophe” by selling out to London investment firm the Breal Group for £5 million, saving about 50 jobs, including that of chief executive Charlene Lyons. 

Photo of Charlene Lyons, CEO of Black Sheep Brewery, enjoying a pint outside the brewery in Masham.

Black Sheep Brewery’s CEO, Charlene Lyons.

Ms Lyons said that Black Sheep was not the brewing industry’s first casualty and warned it would not be the last. Speaking in June, she said: 

“In the last 12 months, 45 breweries entered insolvency in the UK, a three-fold increase on the previous year, as the cost-of-living crisis has squeezed household disposable income. 

“This has had an extreme and adverse effect on all brewers’ sales, at a time when their own costs and inflation are high. Black Sheep has not been immune to these factors, leading it to the administration process. It is highly likely that many more will follow in the coming months.” 

Ilke Homes

Around 1,100 people lost their jobs when Ilke Homes collapsed into administration in June, owing nearly £400 million to more than 300 creditors. 

The company, which manufactured modular housing in a huge factory at Flaxby, near Knaresborough, had been toasted as a stand-out success story on the region’s business landscape. 

Established in 2017, it built up a client base that included major institutional investors, housing associations, developers and local councils.  

In 2021, Ilke Homes raised £60 million in investment, and a year later, it raised a record-breaking £100 million from new and existing shareholders, following successive years of triple-digit growth. 

But despite a healthy-looking order book, it eventually ran into financial difficulties it attributed to “volatile macro-economic conditions and issues with the planning system”.   

The company said it needed additional funding to build its £1 billion pipeline of 4,200 new homes, but that wasn’t forthcoming, and so it was forced to fold. 

Most creditors saw little or nothing of their investment, including government-owned Homes England, which is believed to have received just 0.01% of the £68 million it was owed. 

The demise of one of the area’s largest employers was naturally not without drama. More than 600 employees took legal action over the way the redundancy process was managed, hoping for compensation of up to eight weeks’ pay. 

And in August – just two days after the firm’s assets had been auctioned by administrators – thieves stole “a large amount of equipment” from its factory, just off junction 47 of the A1(M). Bizarrely, they even refused to leave the site and continued to load up vehicles, even after the police arrived on site. Investigations are believed to be ongoing.

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HMRC unlikely to receive payment from Harrogate company collapse

Unsecured credits and HMRC are unlikely to receive any payment after the collapsed of failed Harrogate company Amvoc, administrators have said.

The telemarketing company, which was based at Cardale Park, collapsed and was placed into administration in March this year.

In a latest administrators report published this week, Gareth Lewis, Lewis Business Recovery and Insolvency, said it is anticipated funds will be available to pay former staff.

However, HMRC, which is classed as a “secondary preferential creditor”, and unsecured credits are expected to receive no money.

According to the report, employees are owed £233,507.52 in wages, holiday pay and pension contribution arrears.

Meanwhile, HMRC is owed £1.1 million in unpaid VAT, unpaid employees PAYE and national insurance, student loan deductions and industry scheme deductions.

Mr Lewis said in his report that it is unlikely that any repayment will be made.

He said:

“If funds are available to pay a dividend to the secondary preferential creditors, this claim will be adjudicated accordingly.

“However, at present, it is not anticipated that there will be sufficient funds to do so.”

Mr Lewis added that there was “no likelihood” that unsecured creditors, who were previously estimated to be owed £868,267, would receive payment. 

According to the report, equipment from the company’s old offices on Cardale Park, such as computers, desk and chairs, had now been sold.

‘Cash flow difficulties’

Damian Brockway set up Amvoc, the trading name of A Marketing Vocation Ltd, from a small office in Dacre in 2010. It sold telemarketing services, initially in the legal sector, and grew rapidly, moving first to Pateley Bridge and then to large offices at New York Mills near Summerbridge.

It opened a new head office on Cardale Park in Harrogate in 2015, a facility in Leeds in 2018 and an office in Manchester in 2022.  It also had plans to expand to London.

At the time of its collapse, Amvoc employed 230 staff.

Staff were left shocked on March 17 this year when they received a late night email from Mr Brockway saying “all our offices are closed with effect from tonight”. It went on to blame “covid debts”.

Mr Lewis said in his administrator’s report that in September 2017, the company entered into a company voluntary arrangement as a result of “cash flow difficulties” because of the loss of a major customer and “significant bad debt”.

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Employees to get little from Ilke Homes settlement, document reveals

A new document published by the administrators of failed housebuilder Ilke Homes has revealed that its debts are far greater than previously believed, and that employees stand to gain little from any settlement. 

Ilke Homes collapsed into administration in June, causing the loss of 1,100 jobs and leaving a long list of creditors wondering when they might get any money back – and how much they might receive. 

A Statement of Affairs published on the government’s Companies House website two weeks ago appeared to show that the company left debts of about £320 million, but it transpires that that figure applied only to Ilke Homes Limited (IHL), which is one of three companies currently in administration by AlixPartners. 

The other two, Ilke Homes Land Limited (IHLL) and Ilke Homes Holdings Limited (IHHL), were part of the same operation and have also left debts, of £52.8 million and £23.9 million respectively. 

The total combined sum of the three companies’ debts amounts to £397.95 million. 

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The document also details how much various creditors are likely to receive. For example, IHL owes 1,061 employees a total of £724,614 in the form of holiday pay and pension arrears – an average debt of £683 per person – but the statement lists this debt as being payable at “nil” pence in the pound, meaning they will get nothing. 

By contrast, secured creditors will receive the full amount owed to them. For example, IHL is expected to repay the whole of its £221,000 debt to Barclays Bank, but none of its £2.2 million debt to HMRC. In all, it is expected to repay £326,000, or just 0.1%, of its £321 million total debt. 

IHLL is expected to repay its debts to secured creditors Redlawn Land Ltd (£7.7 million) and Barclays Bank (£5.4 million) in full. Claims from HMRC of £279,743 and from former employees of £43,258 are also expected to be paid in full, but other unsecured creditors are expected to receive just £694,000 of the £39.4 million they are owed. 

In the case of IHHL, the amounts of repayments to unsecured creditors, who are collectively owed nearly £23.9 million, are listed as “uncertain”. 

The three Ilke companies collectively owe Homes England £68.7 million, a sum which appears on all three of their balance sheets due to a system of cross-guarantees. Of this debt, IHL will repay £105,000, IHLL will repay £1.005 million, and IHLL will repay just £30,000. In total, Ilke will repay just £1.14 million of its £68.7 million debt to the government agency. 

In all, the three Ilke Homes companies are expected to pay off £15,478,001 of their debts – or just 2.9% of the total. 

This story was updated on September 20. A previous version wrongly stated that Ilke’s total debts exceeded half a billion pounds. This was because the £68.7 million that Ilke owes to Homes England appears as a liability on the balance sheets of all three Ilke companies, as they have all guaranteed it, and so was counted three times instead of just once.

Collapsed Flaxby firm Ilke Homes owed £320m to 300 creditors

Ilke Homes, the modular house manufacturer based at Flaxby, collapsed owing nearly £320 million to more than 300 creditors.

The figures are revealed in a statement of affairs compiled by the administrators and published on the Companies House website yesterday.

The document said most of the debt – £227 million – is owed to “intercompany creditors”, which ultimately means the firm’s investors: Fortress Investment Group, Sun Capital Partners and TDR Capital, among others. 

Homes England, the government agency that funds new affordable housing, is also owed more than £68 million, and HMRC is owed more than £2 million. 

But much of the rest is owed to scores of small and medium-sized suppliers, mostly from the north of England, but some from as far afield as Glasgow, Kent and even Germany. Most appear unlikely to receive any repayment from Ilke’s assets. 

The debts range from £6 to a Dewsbury hardware company to £1.8 million to a Warrington wall insulation firm. 

Sixteen local creditors include Ripon plumbing supplies business Wolseley (£14,595), Thirsk-based steel supplier Tomrods (£13,871) and Knaresborough security firm K9 Patrol (£10,697). 

A total of £724,614 is owed to 1,061 employees in the form of holiday pay and pension arrears – an average debt of £683 per person. 

Ilke Homes, which was based close to junction 47 of the A1(M), went into administration in June, causing all 1,100 of its employees to lose their jobs.

Although it had a strong pipeline of more than 3,000 homes on order, the administrators, Clare Kennedy, Catherine Williamson and Deborah King of global consultant AlixPartners, said the firm had been hit by “unprecedented inflation and a lack of land supply linked to planning processes”, adding that “the business has not been able to secure the further investment needed to take it forward”.

The administrators were approached for comment about the newly-released statement of affairs, but have not yet responded.

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Equipment from Ilke Homes’ Flaxby factory to be sold

Equipment and machinery from Ilke Homes’ factory in Flaxby near Knaresborough will be put up for sale this month.

The modular house builder fell into administration in June after failing to find a buyer or further investment. A total of 1,150 staff were made redundant.

Administrators AlixPartners has commissioned Hilco Valuation Services to auction off a number of items of machinery on Tuesday, August 17 at 10am.

The equipment from the factory, which closed when the company fell into administration, will be sold online.

It includes electric hand tools, ladders, tipping skips and machinery such as automated wall panel lines.

In a statement last month, AlixPartners told the Stray Ferret that it was in the process of realising the company’s assets.

It said:

“The administrators are now working with a small number of retained employees to realise the assets of the business on behalf of creditors and are soliciting expressions of interest for any or all of those assets.”

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The factory at Flaxby was closed immediately after the company entered administration and all site activities ceased.

Administrators added the firm had “faced the challenges of unprecedented inflation and a lack of land supply linked to planning processes”.

Officials at Ilke Homes said previously that it needed additional funding to fulfil a £1 billion order book and to protect jobs, adding that new investment was needed to build its pipeline of 4,200 new homes.

For more information on the online auction, visit the Hilco Valuation Services website here.

Company involved in £46 million Harrogate district broadband installation ceases trading

A civil engineering company involved in the installation of a £46 million all-fibre broadband network in the Harrogate district has ceased trading with the loss of 165 jobs.

Leeds-based Makehappen Group Limited, which was working for CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent fibre infrastructure provider, appointed administrators Interpath Advisory last week.

The huge installation programme covering Harrogate, Knaresborough and latterly Ripon, was announced in 2020 and has been carried out on a street by street basis.

In response to the news, a spokesperson for CityFibre, said:

“We have been made aware that Makehappen Group has entered into administration.

“We would like to assure residents that work sites have been made safe, and we will remain in close conversation with our local authority stakeholders while we review our plans.”

Neil Morley and Howard Smith from Interpath Advisory were appointed joint administrators of Makehappen Group Limited on July 18.

A statement from Interpath Advisory said:

“In recent months, Makehappen experienced significant pressure on cashflow after a number of contracts were withdrawn by their customers. 

“As a result, the company was unable to continue trading and service its liabilities as they fell due, so after considering their options, the directors sought the appointment of the administrators.

“The company ceased to trade shortly prior to the appointment of the administrators. With no prospect of trade resuming, it is with regret that the joint administrators have made all of the company’s 165 members of staff redundant.”

Meanwhile, Mr Morley, said:

“There continues to be a number of opportunities, but also challenges for businesses involved in the building of fibreoptic broadband infrastructure across the UK and unfortunately, Makehappen was the latest casualty of these challenges.

“As we commence an orderly wind-down of the business, our priority will be to provide support to all of Makehappen’s employees, including providing them with all of the information they require to make claims from the Redundancy Payments Office.”

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Council pledges ‘comprehensive support’ to former Ilke Homes staff

North Yorkshire Council has pledged to offer “comprehensive support” to staff being made redundant at Ilke Homes.

The company, which is based off junction 47 of the A1(M), fell into administration on June 30.

Management consultants Alixpartners was appointed administrators after the company failed to find a buyer or further investment.

Since then, a total of 1,057 staff have been made redundant.

Cllr Derek Bastiman, executive councillor for open to business, said in a statement to a full council meeting this week that Ilke Homes staff would be offered “comprehensive support” after the administration decision.

Cllr Bastiman said the council would be working with York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership and government to offer skills and financial advice to those effected by the collapse.

He said:

“We are working with the government and the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership to offer support to former Ilke Homes workers to help them secure employment or re-training.

“Alongside the LEP, we have taken a stall at a Department for Work and Pensions job fair later this month where will be providing information on skills bootcamps, self-employment and start-up opportunities, mental health support and financial advice.

“The job fair will also include a pre-information session for former ilke Homes employees aimed at helping them get back into the workplace or finding training opportunities if they wish to learn new skills.

“We will continue to offer support where we can through the DWP.”

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Ilke Homes’ factory at Flaxby was immediately closed following the company entering administration and all site activities ceased.

Administrators added that the firm had “faced the challenges of unprecedented inflation and a lack of land supply linked to planning processes”.

Officials at Ilke Homes said previously that it needed additional funding to fulfil a £1 billion order book and to protect jobs, adding that new investment was needed to build its pipeline of 4,200 new homes.

Ilke Homes collapse: 80 staff at Flaxby housebuilder start legal action

More than 80 employees of Flaxby-based Ilke Homes are to take legal action against the firm after it entered administration.

The company appointed AlixPartners as administrators on Friday after it failed to find a buyer or new investment.

In a statement, the administrators said the move will see the immediate closure of the manufacturing facility in Flaxby and all site activities are to cease.

It added that a “significant majority” of the company’s 1,150 staff would be made redundant with only a small amount remaining to help oversee the administration process.

Today, Manchester-based law firm Aticus said it has been instructed by 80 staff members, 60 of whom are from Flaxby, to investigate concerns around how the redundancy process was managed.

It said this would involve whether ex-employees were eligible to claim for a protective award claim against the company.

Aticus said if its clients were able to successfully pursue a claim, those involved would receive up to eight weeks’ worth of pay in compensation, with a cap of £571 per week.

Edward Judge, partner at Aticus Law, said:

 “Further to the collapse of Ilke Homes, we have been instructed by more than 80 former employees who have lost their jobs and who are now looking to pursue a Protective Award against the company.

“While there are reports to suggest that the business will be bought out of administration, this does not prevent people who have already been made redundant from pursuing a claim even if they are offered their jobs back in due course.

“Of course, for many of our clients that would be the ideal outcome, but the Protective Award is claimed because the redundancy process was not followed correctly, which of course has a short term impact on a person’s financial wellbeing.”

The firm is also currently representing around 100 staff of former Harrogate-firm Amvoc, which collapsed back in March.

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Flaxby housebuilder enters administration

Flaxby-based Ilke Homes has entered administration after being unable to find a buyer.

Earlier today, Clare Kennedy, Catherine Williamson and Deborah King of AlixPartners were appointed as Joint administrators to Ilke Homes Holdings Limited, Ilke Homes Land Limited and Ilke Homes Limited collectively.

The appointment was made at the request of the company’s directors.

In a statement, the administrators said the move will see the immediate closure of the manufacturing facility in Flaxby and all site activities are to cease.

They added that a “significant majority” of the company’s 1,150 staff will be made redundant. A small amount will remain to assist in the winding up of the firm’s affairs.

Clare Kennedy, joint administrator and a partner & managing director at AlixPartners, said:

“This is an incredibly difficult time for all associated with Ilke Homes, and in particular its employees, who have worked tirelessly alongside management over recent months to find a resolution.

“Unfortunately, the market and economic headwinds have proven too strong to overcome, thus leading to today’s appointment. Our focus now is on helping all stakeholders, employees, suppliers and customers alike, to find the best possible outcome in this undoubtedly difficult situation for all.”

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Administrators added that the firm had “faced the challenges of unprecedented inflation and a lack of land supply linked to planning processes”.

Ilke Homes, which is based alongside junction 47 of the A1(M), filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators last week.

Officials at the firm said previously that it needed additional funding to fulfil a £1 billion order book and to protect jobs, adding that new investment was needed to build its pipeline of 4,200 new homes.

Ilke Homes was established in 2017 and opened its Flaxby factory the following year. Since then, it built up a client base that included major institutional investors, housing associations, developers and local councils.