Administrator’s deal marks end of the road for Welcome to Yorkshire

Silicon Dales has purchased Yorkshire.com and associated assets from Welcome to Yorkshire, following a successful bid last week.

The technical eCommerce agency specialising in online shops and open source web projects noted that it was “looking forward to welcoming back visitors and businesses to the relaunched” site in due course.

Robin Scott the founder of Silicon Dales explained that the agency “come in very late to this deal” after the domain and other assets had been listed for auction, but moved very quickly when the team realised there was still an opportunity to get the websites and content.

He added that he wanted to “try to save the memory of the fantastic 2014 Grand Depart, as well attempting to preserve the legacy Tour de Yorkshire event”.

Although Scott said the specific plans for the remaining parts of the business are not yet confirmed, he noted the Silicon Dales team will be reaching out to former members who listed with the old Welcome to Yorkshire to ask them how they’d like to shape the future project.

It’s expected that the future of Yorkshire.com will be to continue to market the county as a tourist destination to visitors from overseas.

Scott added: “We will attract new people to the region, and bolster our great county’s tourism sector, which has – like the rest of us – endured a truly dreadful couple of years. I’m now focussing on our first challenge, which is attempting to speak with all interested parties in order to try to save the Tour de Yorkshire. The clock is ticking on that very fast, and I can’t promise success, but we will pull out all the stops to make a deal happen for that fantastic cycling event.”

Rob Adamson of the administrators Armstrong Watson LLP added: “There was significant interest generated from the announcement that Welcome to Yorkshire had been placed into Administration. Given the nature of the offers received, whilst we had received one offer that was much higher than all the others, the Joint Administrators requested that best and final offers be put forward.

“We proceeded with the offer that represented the best return to the creditors. The remaining employees will continue to assist the Administrators in winding down the company’s affairs. All monies held separately in respect of advanced membership subscriptions will be returned and that process is now ongoing.”

Grahame Love of Napthens added: “It’s been a pleasure to work with Silicon Dales Limited in bringing the transaction to fruition in a very short space of time. I wish them the very best of luck in reinvigorating the brand which their predecessors clearly worked hard to build.”

The sale comes after Welcome to Yorkshire appointed Armstrong Watson as administrators last month after what was described as an ‘incredibly difficult’ three years.

The downfall of the organisation started with the scandal surrounding former chief executive Sir Gary Verity, who left the organisation in 2019.

Since then, the body which was responsible for bringing the Grand Depart of the Tour de France to Yorkshire in 2014 has faced a number of funding problems,  warning at one point that it could be forced to close its doors if local authorities can’t guarantee an additional £1.4m of funding.

Last October also saw its latest chief executive James Mason leave and Nicky Chance-Thompson DL, chief executive of the Piece Hall step down as a board member .

The administrators of Welcome to Yorkshire were assisted by Victoria Kay, of law firm Clarion.