Elmfield Training’s liabilities topped £11m
WARRINGTON training company Elmfield failed with liabilities of £11m when it went into administration in October.
Documents filed by administrators at Deloitte show the company owed its bank, Barclays, £7.8m, while HM Revenue & Customs and trade creditors are owed £1.5m and £2.5m respectively.
Barclays will suffer a significant shortfall on the loan and unsecured creditors will probably not recover anything.
One of the largest unsecured creditors is Vital Skills Training, the training arm of Salford technical recruitment group Vital which went into administration last month.
Vital Skills, owed £300,000 by Elmfield, escaped administration but training for 200 apprentices was suspended for several weeks due to funding issues, and it is still seeking to secure its long-term future.
The statement of affairs shows Elmfield, controlled by Gerard Syddall, had £2.7m on the directors loan account, but administrators do not expect to recover this. There was also £2.5m in other unidentified loans and £7.5m in associated company investments. The company’s biggest asset are investment properties valued at £1.5m.
Some 300 jobs were saved at Elmfield last month when it was acquired out of administration by listed group CareTech Holdings for £1.5m. A training contract the company held with Morrisons was sold separately to Newcastle-based NCG last month.
CareTech, which has a number of companies offering support to children and adults with learning disabilities and mental health problems, bought the business through a new vehicle called EQL Solutions which will also be the venture’s new name.
Elmfield incurred a loss before tax of £6.4m in 2012 but had seen trading improve this year. In the year to July 31 sales topped £31m and the company recorded earnings before interest and tax of £2.2m.
In July it was the subject of action by the Skills Funding Agency, which pays for apprenticeship training, after a June Ofsted report said the training was “inadequate”. It was banned from taking on new learners until another report in September yielded a more positive result.
