50 jobs lost as Microsoft distributor appoints administrators

Entatech

Microsoft distributor Entatech has collapsed into administration, with the immediate loss of 50 jobs.

The Telford-based IT firm has endured a tough few years, which resulted in the company being restructured and a change of ownership.

Jason Tsai, the former owner of ENTA Technologies, which became Changtel Solutions UK, was banned from being a company director earlier this year for his part in a VAT carousel. He had previously taken his legal dispute with HMRC to the Supreme Court, but lost.

Changtel had sold assets to Entatech in 2013, which was still connected with Tsai, but it got a new owner in 2015 when it was bought by Stevinson Capital.

Dave Stevinson, managing director of Entatech, agreed a settlement with HMRC but has been unable to turn the company’s fortunes around.

Chris Pole and Mark Orton from KPMG were appointed Joint Administrators of Entatech UK Ltd on Monday afternoon after attempts to complete a trade sale failed.

“Entatech has been affected by difficult trading conditions for some time,” said Pole.

“Following a change in ownership and attempts to restructure the business, the loss of a number of key contracts and declining sales has led to a significant drain on the company’s financial situation.

“This ultimately led to the directors taking the difficult decision to place it into administration.”

They made 50 redundancies and have retained 29 employees while they continue to explore options to sell the business. Just two years ago the company had more than 150 staff.

The company, which had grown turnover to £117m in 2015, is a trade-only distributor of PC hardware, software, components and networking to retailers, resellers and system assemblers.

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