150 jobs lost as CCTV firm closes
SOME 152 staff at the Manchester-based ID group of companies have lost their jobs after the private equity-backed business closed down.
Administrators at BDO in Manchester, who were appointed to the parent company and three subsidiaries on August 2, said the business was unable to pay staff in July. They blamed the economy for the firm’s demise and are now trying to raise money for creditors by selling off assets.
The collapse of the business, which installs CCTV, fire protection and air conditioning systems, has affected 113 staff in Middleton and 39 in Fife, Scotland.
It comes a year after £28.5m of bank and shareholder debt was written off as part of a restructuring, according to the latest filed accounts for the year to September 2012.
This involved the old group company, ID Support Services Holdings, being acquired by a new venture called Ensco 948. In the accounts the directors said they were confident this would give the business the platform to grow. In the year to September 30, 2012, it had revenues of £31.2m and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £1m.
The accounts, filed in March, show that under the new structure the business had £2.2m of shareholder debt, bank debt of £1m and £2.5m of working capital facilities.
The ID group was the subject of a secondary buyout in 2008 when a management team was backed by Glasgow-based Penta Capital. This deal, which valued the business at £25m, gave an exit to Aberdeen Asset Managers.
In a statement BDO said: “The joint administrators were appointed over Ensco 948 Limited, ID Fire & Security Limited, ID HVAC & Energy Limited & Scotia Energy Saving Systems Limited on August 2.
“Unfortunately the economic climate and difficult trading conditions significantly affected the business. It was not possible to achieve a sale of the business and assets prior to the administration and on appointment 152 employees were made redundant. Nine employees have been retained at this time.”
“Unfortunately, the group had insufficient funds to pay employee salaries for the month leading up to the administrations. We understand that this will have caused hardship and are assisting employees to make claims to the Redundancy Payments Office for any amounts owed. The joint administrators are now in the process of realising the assets of the group for the benefit of creditors.”
The firm was run by original founder Brian Dunn and chief executive David Metcalfe. Its client base included retailers such as Next, Sainsbury’s, Dixons Stores Group and Argos.
