When the best thing to do is cut your losses and move on
North West Negoce was a business based in Ellesmere, Shropshire with an annual turnover approaching £1 million. It had been trading since the early 1990s, specialising in the buying, selling and transportation of meat products throughout Europe. It was hit by a catalogue of factors beyond its control, all of which eventually became too much for its Managing Director, Chris Rickett.
The company suffered from some sizeable pieces of bad luck including losing stock in the BSE and foot & mouth crises, as well as suffering from the associated trading restrictions, and also the collapse of the Russian economy where it had business interests.
These, combined with the low margins in the export industry and a number of bad debts, left the company in a severely weakened state.
Negoce managed to pay most of its major creditors, but it was left with a huge £120,000 debt to the Inland Revenue. Chris contacted his accountant who referred him to Clarke Bell for advice on dealing with the situation. After reviewing all the details, we believed the best course of action was to promptly put the business into liquidation.
"I was spending a lot of and effort time dealing with Negoce - and I was getting nowhere," said Chris.
"After talking to Clarke Bell, it was clear that my best option was to get them to put Negoce into liquidation and for me to then concentrate on my other business interests."
"Chris was very unlucky to go through such a catalogue of unforeseeable events," said John Bell, the senior partner at Clarke Bell.
"Chris had already invested significant sums of his own money in a bid to support the company, however there comes a time when the best thing to do is to cut your losses and move on as quickly as possible."....
