300 jobs go at Northants computer firm

Some 300 jobs have been lost at a Northants computer reselling firm after it called in administrators.

Geoff Rowley, Tom MacLennan and John Lowe, partners at FRP Advisory have been appointed as joint administrators to Misco UK, the UK operation of the computer reseller business, headquartered in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, and with a sales office in Weybridge, Surrey, and a warehouse in Greenock, near Glasgow, Scotland. Misco UK has ceased trading and the vast majority of the company’s 330 UK staff have been made redundant.

Misco UK forms part of Misco Europe, which continues to trade with operations in Italy, Spain, Netherlands and Sweden.

Whilst UK redundancies have been made, administrators say around 30 jobs are being retained at the Wellingborough headquarters and the Greenock warehouse to assist the joint administrators manage the process of realising the company’s assets in the interests of creditors.

FRP Advisory says that despite an effective turnaround plan being in place to improve cash-flow, credit insurers significantly tightened their terms which put further pressure on working capital at a time when competition from other global online retailers began to increase.

A statement from FRP said: “As part of efforts to recapitalise the company, the directors initiated a marketing process to protect the UK business as a going concern and engaged in constructive discussions, but once firm offers failed to materialise, the pressure on cash-flow was unsustainable. Following the receipt of winding-up petition from HMRC, the company was left no viable option other than to seek the protection of administration.

Geoff Rowley, joint administrator, and partner at FRP Advisory, said: “Misco UK had made great progress since the change of ownership and new investment in March this year but the company’s turnaround plans could not deal sufficiently with the rapidly deterioration in cash-flow after the sudden tightening of credit insurance terms. The UK business had moved to a system of supply chain outsourcing of stock, with increasing levels of automation to enable greater efficiencies with suppliers and distributions and overall lower cost, however these efforts came at a time of heightened competition from other globalised online retailers which have eaten heavily into the margins of even established IT resellers like Misco.

“Our immediate priority as administrators is to work closely with all agencies and services to ensure employees receive every support and assistance at this time. We shall be assisting those staff who have lost their jobs with their timely applications to the Redundancy Payments Service.”