Creditors of collapsed retail display firm set to miss out on almost £1m

A Leicester manufacturer of retail display sets owed almost £1m to creditors when it called administrators in, according to documents seen by TheBusinessDesk.com.

Tyrone Courtman and Deviesh Raikundalia of RSM UK Restructuring Advisory were appointed joint administrators of Thomson Hayes Retail Display on 22 February. Some 16 people lost their jobs at the time.

Newly-filed documents show that Thomas Hayes’ unsecured creditors are likely never to see the cash owed to them – a figure which runs to just over £947,000.

The documents show that HMRC is owed over £200,000, while trade creditors such as JRR Engineering of Leicester is set to miss out on a payment of almost £30,000.

Thomson Hayes designed and manufactured retail display sets, predominantly for cosmetics brands, for use in department stores and shops. Clients included L’Oreal, Dior and Lancome. The business was established in 1989 by directors Chris Thomson and Frank Hayes and employed 26 people.

The pandemic was instrumental in the downturn in bricks and mortar retail sales as consumers were forced to switch to online shopping. This, along with rising costs, impacted on the business – which has been unable to recover.

Prior to the appointment of administrators, the directors decided to wind down the business and to ultimately cease to trade. They had tried to honour outstanding contracts and to fulfil outstanding orders for some customers to maximise returns for creditors and stakeholders. However, says RSM, this became “increasingly problematic, resulting in the appointment of administrators, who are now exploring the feasibility of doing so.”