Travel company placed in voluntary receivership

ONE of Yorkshire’s oldest travel companies has been placed into voluntary receivership after running out of cash.

Wetherby’s Eddie Brown Tours was established in 1949 and provided coach hire, school and college bus services, excursions and holidays.

Last year, the firm, based at Thorp Arch Estate, secured substantial investment from Barbados-based Island Fortitude but shortly before Christmas, due to what Eddie Brown described as “very difficult trading conditions”, HMRC petitioned a winding-up order for £300,000.

Twenty-eight of its 38 vehicles were taken back by finance companies in mid-December.

Since the firm was bought, more than £250,000 has been put into the business by its shareholders.

In a statement on the website, the business said: “Despite the best efforts of our board of investors and the hard work of staff at our Thorp Arch offices, it has not been possible to turn the business around as planned.
 
“Although this is a sad situation to be faced with, arrangements have already been put in place to safeguard the future of our holidays and excursions programme. Therefore, we are pleased to confirm that your bookings will be unaffected and have been taken over by Yorkshire operator Globe Holidays.”

Director Gary Priest told the coach and bus industry magazine, Route One: “The investors had 48 hours to examine the business when it was sold by KPMG, which meant that the due diligence was not as thorough as it would otherwise have been.

“After purchasing the firm from the Brown family, a number of financial issues were discovered.

“We’ve worked incredibly hard to try to trade our way out of it, but ultimately the winding-up petition served by HMRC left the shareholders with no alternative, other than to appoint receivers.

“We have set up Eddie Brown Travel Ltd which will continue in a smaller, profitable, form and continue to provide employment for staff on a firm financial footing.”

The company’s day trips and holidays will be trading under Eddie Brown Travel but private hire and coach touring contracts have been re-assigned to other operators.