Paragon Interiors owed £13.5m to creditors, say administrators

Paragon Interiors owed creditors over £13m when it called in administrators last month, according to reports.

Nottinghamshire Live says the firm, which was sold earlier this month to Elev8 Interiors of London, says that a report from administrators Leonard Curtis shows the company was £800,000 in the red by last June – when its latest full-year accounts were filed, and by January this year that had extended to losses of over £2m.

Leonard Curtis’s report also shows that Paragon Interiors loaned Paragon Leisure Group £7.3m to buy Notts County in January 2017. An extra £1.4m is owed directly by Notts County to Paragon Interiors, says the report.

The administrators say that former Paragon staff are owed more than £1m, with unsecured creditors owed more than £13.5m. Leonard Curtis says these unsecured creditors will receive some of the cash they are owed, but that this is dependent on whether or not they can recover money from debtors – including Notts County.

Earlier this month it emerged that former Paragon COO John Rigby will head up the new incarnation of Paragon Interiors.

Rigby told TheBusinessDesk.com that while it is early days he vision is to develop Paragon into “the excellent business it once was”.

He added: “We know this will take an enormous amount of effort and hard work and also the co-operation and commitment from customers and supply chain alike, however we are fully committed to the rebuilding of Paragon Interiors.”