Pera subsidiary sold for £100,000

A former director of stricken Melton Mowbray firm Pera Technology Solutions (PTS) has bought a division of the company out of administration for £100,000.

PTS was placed into administration in late September after just six months of trading. Now, Alan Baxter, a former director of PTS, along with Ian Hay, has formed a new company called PRA World to buy the PRA (formerly Paint Research Association) division of PTS. PRA is a membership service which provides technical, testing and market research services to some of the world’s largest paint and coatings companies.

PTS was set up by a management team led by chief executive Paul Tranter bought the company out of administration in April, saving some 80 jobs.

Alan Baxter

Documents seen by TheBusinessDesk.com show that PTS made a loss of over £300,000 in its short lifetime. This was due to a number of factors, according to administrators from Duff & Phelps, including a large wage bill of over £40,000 a month, the reluctance of previous clients to renew their contracts because of the previous period of administration, and the uncertainty surrounding the granting of funding from European Commission (which PTS relied on heavily) due to the recent Brexit vote.

Administrators from Duff & Phelps estimate that PTS owes £290,000 to HMRC in PAYE, NIC and VAT payments and around £140,000 to the 80 staff it employed.

PRA World will be based at Pera Business Business in Melton Mowbray.