Director digs deep in bid to save firm

A company director pumped more than £200,000 of his own cash into his 70-year-old family firm but failed to turn its fortunes around.

Donald Lucas loaned Salford-based Lucas Realisations around £208,000 over a number of months but the business was put into administration after failing to turn a profit. He is now the company’s largest creditor.

Lucas Realisations, formerly GH Lucas, specialised in distributing cable fixings and electrical installation equipment. It collapsed in March with debts of nearly £350,000.

According to administrators at PKF handling the case the company made a pre-tax loss of £34,000 in 2008 and draft accounts for 2009 showed this figure widening to £46,000.

The administrator said: “In recent years the company has only been able to continue trading in the context of these losses because of substantial injections of capital from Donald Lucas in the form of director’s loans.

“This was not sustainable in the long-term and, with the recent trading difficulties, led the directors in the early part of 2009 to conclude that the business could not continue in its present form.”

The company’s directors agreed to buy the business out of a pre-packaged administration, paying £25,000 for the stock and goodwill through a new business called Watt Sense.

They did not take on the company’s four staff who were made redundant at the end of March. Unsecured creditors are not expected to receive a return.