Latest news with #businessfailure
RNZ News
09-07-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Enforced liquidations for businesses at a high
The number of business going belly up are in record numbers. In the six months to the end of June there been 594 applications to wind up businesses that owe money that's a six year high. IRD enforced liquidations made up more than 70% of applications last month. For the past two years IRD insolvency applications have outstripped all other creditors combined as the Department applies more pressure for failing businesses to cough up tax debts. Partner at specialist insolvency firm McDonald Vague Keaton Pronk spoke to Lisa Owen. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
Daily Mail
08-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Insolvency firm's profits almost double as larger firms fail
Insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor saw annual profits almost double after a spate of larger, higher-value business failures. The group, which achieved its 10th consecutive year of growth, reported pre-tax profits jumped from £5.8million to £11.5million in the year ending April, while its adjusted earnings before nasties rose by 11 per cent to £31.7million. Its turnover increased by 12 per cent to £153.7million after organic revenues climbed by 10 per cent, thanks to strong performances across both divisions. It follows a rise in insolvencies across England and Wales as firms buckled under the pressure of higher labour costs associated with last year's Autumn Budget. Begbies Traynor's business recovery and advisory arm saw sales expanded by 11 per cent to £107.3million owing to higher advisory fees from restructuring projects and special situations mergers and acquisitions income. The segment was also boosted by the takeover of insolvency firms West Advisory and White Maund, as well as greater activity from bigger, higher-value cases. This was despite the total volume of corporate insolvencies in the UK declining by around 6 per cent to 23,969 in the year ending April 2025, according to figures from the Insolvency Service. The overall number of administrations, which usually involve larger and more complex instructions, also shrank from 1,663 the previous year to 1,549. Nonetheless, Begbies Traynor said its insolvency order book jumped by £6.7million to £78.6million. Meanwhile, turnover in its property advisory arm grew by 15 per cent to £46.4million on the back of an uptick in property auctions. Following the trading update, Begbies Traynor shares jumped 9 per cent to 121p by the late morning, taking their gains to about 23 per cent since the year started. Last year, Begbies Traynor was appointed the administrator for SH Structures, a steelwork business that provided the steel for Murdoch's Connection bridge in Hull, and The Kelpies, a collection of horse-head sculptures near Falkirk in Scotland. It also became Torquay United's administrator after the financially-struggling football team was unable to find a buyer. The club eventually exited administration in late April, having completed the terms of a company voluntary arrangement. Begbies Traynor previously worked on the administration of Wrexham, Port Vale and former Premier League sides Huddersfield Town and Wigan Athletic. In the current financial year, the Manchester-based firm anticipates revenue hitting the top end of market expectations alongside further profit growth. Ric Traynor, its executive chairman, said: 'Looking forward, activity levels are encouraging with positive momentum across the group. We have increased the scale of our teams, and market conditions are supportive.'
Daily Mail
28-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The 'stupid' joke that cost me £500MILLION: How 'King of the high street' lost his home, his company and almost his sanity with the quip his jewellery was 'total crap' - and he still regrets it today
Once hailed as the undisputed king of the British high street, Gerald Ratner was a jeweller with the Midas touch – until a single offhand quip turned his glittering empire to dust. At his peak in the late 1980s, Ratner was earning £750,000 a year, jetting between his riverside home in Bray, Berks and a Mayfair mansion in a private helicopter, and overseeing a retail empire that controlled half the UK's jewellery market. His company, Ratners Group, was the biggest jewellery retailer on earth, owning H. Samuel, Ernest Jones, Leslie Davis and even Watches of Switzerland. In the US alone, he had over a thousand stores. And yet, it all came crashing down in a matter of days after that infamous speech at the Royal Albert Hall in April 1991. It was meant to be a bit of harmless banter to liven up the Institute of Directors' annual convention. 'We do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95,' he said, gearing up for the hilarious punchline. 'People say, 'How can you sell this for such a low price?'. I say, 'Because it's total crap'. 'An M&S prawn sandwich would last longer than most of the earrings the company sold,' he added, in case they hadn't got the message. In a Britain battered by recession and looking for scapegoats, the nation – and the media - pounced. The name Ratner suddenly became corporate blasphemy. Overnight, the man who had built a billion-pound brand became a pariah in the City that had once loved him. More than 34 years on, you might think that a man whose name has become a byword for a catastrophic b****up with the coining of the term, the 'Ratner effect', would tire of being constantly reminded of it. But the reverse is true, as the affable Ratner, now a spritely 75-year-old who cycles 25 miles a day, told MailOnline in an exclusive interview this week. 'I do motivational speeches about once a week,' he said. 'I'm off to Solihull on Saturday. It's quite cathartic, to be honest. 'I'm infamous for messing up, but the fact is that I've come back and made a success of my life again, so people tell me they find it inspirational, because whatever disaster has befallen them or their business, the chances are it won't compare to supposedly losing £500million, so it cheers them up.' And now, according to a recent report by the Mail on Sunday, Ratner could be on the verge of buying back high street jewellers H Samuel and Ernest Jones from its American owner Signet, but he told us it's not something he can discuss right now. It's all a far cry from his early years. Gerald was expelled from school aged 16 for telling the headmaster at a colleague's funeral that he might as well stay at the crematorium. He joined the family business aged 21 as a shop assistant. His father, having battled illness, passed the reins to Gerald in 1984, as Ratners struggled with £34,000 in losses and a looming takeover threat from H. Samuel. Ratner executed a classic boardroom coup – manipulating both his father and uncles, none of whom spoke to one another, into stepping aside. At just 34, he took control. His genius was to recognise what few others had: the public didn't want expensive heirlooms – they wanted affordable, fashionable sparkle. He ripped the doors off the shops, blasted pop music through the aisles, and put flashy gold chains and earrings at the front, where once had sat velvet-ringed solitaire diamonds. It worked. By the end of the 1980s, Ratners was raking in £1.2bn in turnover a year. Ratner acquired his rivals and revolutionised a dusty industry into a retail juggernaut. 'At one point, we were taking more money than any other retailer in Europe,' he boasts. Then came the spectacular crash. However much he and others might joke about his downfall these days, there was little to laugh at for him at the time. Customers boycotted the stores. The company shuttered over 100 branches and laid off swathes of staff. In a desperate bid to shield the firm, Ratner hired a chairman to distance himself from the brand. It didn't work. He was fired from his own company 18 months later. As well as being forced out of the business he and his family had created, he faced a £1m Capital Gains Tax bill for having received share options on shares which were now worthless, having collapsed virtually overnight from £4.20 to just 2p. 'I basically did nothing for seven years,' he recalled. 'I was on anti-depressants, and I'd still be in bed when Countdown came on the telly in the afternoon.' For years, Ratner drifted aimlessly, but it was exercise that got him going again, in the shape of cycling, after buying a carbon-fibre bicycle. Then, around the same time, he decided to monetise his own fitness hobby and spotted a disused building in Henley, placing an ad in the Henley Advertiseroffering to waive the joining fee for early sign-ups to his gym – which didn't actually exist – or belong to him. Over 800 people registered with direct debits. Ratner marched into his bank, armed with the documents as part of his business plan, and secured a loan to buy the site. Three years later, he sold the business for almost £4 million. Not only was he back, he'd also realised that infamy could be as valuable a commodity as fame, and launched GeraldOnline, an internet jewellery business that cheekily traded on his name and reputation. 'I used my notoriety to get free publicity,' he admits. At its peak, Gerald was taking in £25 million a year. Nowadays Ratner and his wife Moira live in a modest but comfortable £1m semi in the commuter town of Wargrave near Reading. As he told the Telegraph recently: 'I read that Bill Gates has 47 bathrooms,' he shrugs. 'You don't need 47 bathrooms. I've been there and done that. It doesn't bring happiness.' He says he's happier with his life than he ever was before. 'I appreciate the little things more – of course you only do that after you've lost them.' In a world where corporate missteps are ruthlessly seized upon, and people are 'cancelled' at the drop of a tweet, Ratner's Riches-to-Rags-to-Riches story serves as both cautionary tale and comeback legend. He may have once labelled his products 'crap,' but there's nothing cheap about the grit and resilience that saw him turn a national humiliation into a second act few would have dared attempt. As he said himself: 'This is part of my motivational speaking thing - If I'd been a politician, I'd have been consigned to history. But in business, if you're honest about your mistakes – and you learn – there's always a way back.'
The Sun
27-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
‘Not the proudest moment of my life' – Darts star Rob Cross breaks silence on £450k tax issue that led to ban
ROB CROSS admits being banned as a company director for unpaid tax is 'not the proudest moment' of his life. The World No.9 has spoken for the first time after being disqualified from acting as a company director for five years after his business failed to pay more than £450,000 in tax. 1 Four-time major winner Cross set about making it right and has entered into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement to repay the money. He said: 'It's not the proudest moment of my life. I've done wrong, and I'll hold my hands up to it. 'Going down this route with the IVA to pay the money back means I'm not running. I suppose you make mistakes in life. 'I'm willing to correct them; it's going to tarnish me, but I'm going to do the right thing. 'It's been going on for two years. It has taken two years to get to something of a resolution. It's cost me a lot of money to get there. 'It needs to be paid back. This isn't new news to me. I was probably suffering more than two years ago with it.' He added: 'I have to admit it's the only thing I am happy with. It's sorted, it's there now. I can just carry on working, pay it back and move forward. 'I was surprised it took the best part of two years to come out. It was a long wait, but there were so many complicated things. JOIN SUN VEGAS: GET £50 BONUS 'The UK government didn't want me to go bankrupt, which is rightfully so, and I don't think I've needed to. 'I'm sorry to let all of my fans down. I will get it sorted and get back on my feet. Hopefully, it won't linger over me for the rest of my life.' Fans spot perfect way Rob Cross beat Gerwyn Price after Welshman showed off chippy on Sky Sports Former world champion Cross returns to action today as he begins the defense of his US Masters title against Danny Lauby at Madison Square Garden. Cross believes his game is in a good place and he is buzzing to defend the crown in New York. He said: 'Absolutely amazing. I was buzzing walking in. Such an iconic arena. I've been here twice. 'It's been my third time this year. I loved it from day one, but winning it last year was very, very special. 'I've had some new darts and I have to admit, I'm not going to lie, I've had a massive rest. 'I've rested up and sort of tried to build the batteries, that was the aim. 'Even basing it off Copenhagen, I thought I played steady and I was consistent and I never really practised there much, so I'm good. 'I'm mentally good and that's where I need to be.'
The Sun
27-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Businesswoman forced to pay £15,000 to her landlord after misreading the T&C's
A businesswoman had to pay £15k to her landlord after misreading the T&C's in her tenancy agreement – leading her business to go bust. Faye Finaro, 40, was looking to lease her first office building for her start-up recruitment company in 2016 and found a good spot in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. 1 She said she felt "pressured" to sign the 20-page contract there and then and was offered a discount as incentive. Alongside her then-business partner, Faye signed the tenancy agreement for the commercial premises - without reading it in detail - and got the keys the same day. They realised days later that it had no internet, nor could they get access to the server room to have it installed. It became "impossible" to work without Wi-Fi – using dongles for their staff - and Faye tried to hand in notice after four months to move the business elsewhere. That was when they learned they'd unwittingly agreed to an 18-month break clause - after not reading the terms and conditions in the tenancy agreement properly - and they had to keep paying the £1,200-a-month in rent until that point. When they refused, the landlord took them to small claims court - and they lost their case, as the break clause had been mentioned in the contract. Faye and her business partner were ordered to pay £15k - their unpaid rent plus interest - in monthly instalments. It decimated her personal credit rating for several years after too - and she ended up having to close the business. Faye, who now runs a beauty service app called SOSBeauty, said: "We tried to tell them that we needed to go away and think about it before agreeing. "But they started adding extras to help us make a flash decision and, in the end, we signed on the spot. "The same week we realised there was no internet, or access to the server to install it; that wasn't mentioned in the agreement - they just omitted it." After moving in in January 2016, they handed in their notice in April and were moved out by July, but started getting letters demanding their unpaid rent which is when they were told there were 11 months left on their break clause – which amounted to £13,200 - plus £1,800 interest. In January 2017, they were taken to Mansfield Magistrates' and County Court – where they were told they had to pay the money they owed because they signed the contract. Faye said: "I had to pay £15,000 on an instalment plan as we were personal guarantors on the property. "It was a huge setback and impacted how our business started; because of the default on my credit file, it led to the downfall of the business. "We couldn't access funding because the bank lenders saw me as too high risk." But in 2023, she launched her new business, SOSBeauty, "on a shoestring" - borrowing investments from friends. Now, CEO Faye has teamed up with Adobe to share her story to highlight how their Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant can help make it easier to find the small print in contracts. She said she's been able to build a "powerhouse" out of her new business and has since fully restored her high credit rating, but she still looks back on the "horrific" period of her life. Michi Alexander, at Adobe, said: "Faye's story is more common than you'd think - 65% of business leaders admit to signing contracts they don't fully grasp. "We're using AI to make contracts clearer, easier to compare and understand, with verified answers and built-in data security." Faye added: "I'd advise someone else - don't be scared to ask questions, and to ask for help. "Don't put too much trust in landlords that have their own interests at heart - get other tenants' opinions too. She added: "The Adobe software would have been really useful when I was on the spot there. "I often check legal things using Chat GPT but you still need to use the right prompts to get the right information, so if you don't know what to ask, it's hard. "So, if I'd had something like that in which was specifically tailored to contracts, we would have been able to check."
