Jobs at risk after Paymex offloads IVA back book
PAYMEX Group, the Manchester-based company which is best known for its Baines & Ernst debt management arm, has sold the book of its individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) business Blair Endersby to accountancy firm Grant Thornton for an undisclosed sum.
The sale means that the future of the 80 employees who worked on processing payments for around 14,000 of Blair Endersby’s clients from Paymex’s Manchester headquarters now hangs in the balance.
Paymex’s head of compliance, Ian Flint, told TheBusinessDesk.com that under the terms of the deal, all of the staff who worked in that department have subsequently transferred under TUPE regulations to Grant Thornton.
However, Grant Thornton’s IVA processing is carried out in Belfast and a company spokesman was unable to confirm whether staff would be offered new positions in Northern Ireland.
The spokesman said that the matter was “something that management will be negotiating with the employees who have transferred”. He said that a consultation process had now begun with affected employees which will last until May 15, during which time the firm would not comment further.
Grant Thornton said that it is now in the process of writing to all of Blair Endersby’s existing clients regarding the transfer of their cases and providing them with contact details for its IVA support team.
The firm said that it has experience of integrating IVA back books built by competitors, having acquired Bolton-based Debtmattters’ back book in 2008 as part of a £6.4m deal and the Wilson Phillips IVA back book from Manchester-based debt management firm Accuma a year later for £5.6m.
The head of Grant Thornton’s IVA practice, Mark Allen, said: “We acknowledge that this period may be unsettling for our new clients, however, we have considerable experience of the assimilation of such IVA portfolios, and consideration for our clients is foremost in our minds.
“It is our aim to make this process as smooth as possible. We look forward to dealing with each and every one of our new clients and welcome them all to our organisation.”
