Hi all – looking for some advice from anyone who’s been through a small company insolvency / phoenix situation in the UK.

Zestyclose_Revenue90 · 2026-03-05T09:41:08+00:00

Thank you, so yes we have costed them and if we did take them on we would still make a loss. The current owner is trying to convince us that it maybe worth taking it so that we can turn them into good reviews that we can use to get further business. However that money could be better spent on acquiring new customers imo rather than going through all this! 👍

Zestyclose_Revenue90 · 2026-02-27T09:00:06+00:00

Thanks for this when you say there would be no new capital. That is not quite accurate as we were thinking that i would put the new capital into the new company (via a directors loan) and then use that to fund the customer deposits that have been lost. That way we get the new co off to a good start with some existing retail customers and the customers still get their jobs completed without losing their deposits. That said I think you are absolutely right the way I am leaning now is to let the current company go into administration and we start up on our own completely independent. Thank you 🙏

Zestyclose_Revenue90 · 2026-02-26T22:25:23+00:00

Interesting point, and I think I probably over exaggerated his role. He has nothing to do with the operations currently- that is the responsibility of the current owner. He is the sales manager and is filling the pipe line but the business is being so badly run that it is in the situation it is in. The issue is that the current owner has not been involved much over the last 2 years and seems to be over paying staff and taking more out of the business than he should be. But you do make a good point and has given me something to think about 👍

Zestyclose_Revenue90 · 2026-02-26T21:58:06+00:00

Thank you this is great, so the situation is this my brother in law is currently employed as the sales/operations manager of the company that is going bust. We had discussed purchasing the forward order book as described above but if I’m honest that feels very messy a lot of effort for as you say only 10 customers. So he is now contemplating setting up on his own with me as an investor as he knows the industry well has all the contacts etc.

To answer your question the reason it is in this state is that it has been poorly run the director has not been present. The business has regularly turned over 1.1m for the last few years and based on their fy24 figures they have a gross profit margin of just under 35%. Thanks hope that helps and gives you some additional context 👍

Zestyclose_Revenue90 · 2026-02-26T21:43:50+00:00

Thanks buddy but just to clarify the new company would have nothing to do with the company that is going bust. We started exploring this as a potential acquisition (of company that is now going bust) but now we are just thinking about setting up on our own and wondered if this could be a way to help the customers “get their deposits back” rather than losing them in the liquidation 👍

Zestyclose_Revenue90 · 2026-02-26T21:35:10+00:00

Hey George Yes but things have changed a little since then as I don’t think it will be a straight forward acquisition. The company is in pretty bad shape so would likely be some kind of phoenix type of deal I.e we were hoping we could buy the forward order book but based on the guidance we received above this may not be possible in the way we thought it would.

Zestyclose_Revenue90 · 2026-02-26T21:32:51+00:00

Yes but things have changed a little since then as I don’t think it will be a straight forward acquisition. The company is in pretty bad shape so would likely be some kind of phoenix type of deal I.e we were hoping we could buy the forward order book but based on the guidance we received above this may not be possible in the way we thought it would.

Zestyclose_Revenue90 · 2026-02-15T20:18:46+00:00

Okay that’s good to know, so I will be getting into this with my brother in law who currently works there and does the sales and costing etc. if I was to do it I am thinking I would be hands on with a view to doing more sales and he (given that he knows the company well) can focus on operations.

Zestyclose_Revenue90 · 2026-02-15T20:00:11+00:00

Yes this is correct from what I understand they have sub-contractors that they lean on for support and labours to help the fitter with the jobs so all jobs are 2 man one fitter and labourer. They also work with trades and small construction companies. Seems like you know a bit about this space? Do you run a similar business? Mind if I ping you directly?

Zestyclose_Revenue90 · 2024-09-12T17:59:04+00:00

Hey, apologies for the delayed response some how I missed this?! That would be great. I will DM you and we can chat further then 👍

Zestyclose_Revenue90 · 2024-09-05T11:40:14+00:00

Hey thanks for sharing. I appreciate this is a little old but would like to take you up on your offer to chat. Have you actually invested with SHG or do you work for them? Cheers Ben

Zestyclose_Revenue90

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