Following the restructuring at the businesses in August that involved all employees being made redundant and reapplying for new jobs at the Bradley Group (UK), the 14 staff laid off as a result have been waiting for three weeks to receive their redundancy payments, with no joy.
The Bradley Group issued a statement yesterday afternoon that said the former employees would now need to contact an insolvency specialist.
“All employees who worked for either Nicholson & Bass Ltd and Quinns Belfast (2009) Ltd can contact Jessica at Bespoke Insolvency Solutions Ltd,” the firm said.
Jessica Hodgson works at Bespoke Insolvency Solutions in Bury, which has the same phone number as corporate recovery and business turnaround firm OBS Recovery in Bolton. Ironically the OBS address is 106 Bradley House, on Radcliffe Moor Road.
The statement, reproduced here verbatim, also said: “Nicholson & Bass Ltd and Quinns Belfast (2009) Ltd traded as subsidiary companies in the Bradley Group UK. Trading conditions through 2017/18 have been very tough for both entities, the uncertainty around Brexit and the fall in the value of sterling made for difficulties.
“We took immediate steps to consolidate our operation closing our operation in Liverpool, we sold our subsidiary companies retaining a printing operation in Belfast. The Bradley Group UK. Trading in the subsidiary entities under new ownership proved still more challenging, we understand that the owners of Quinns Belfast (2009) Ltd and Nicholson & Bass Ltd are now moving the entities into receivership."
Bradley Group (UK) continues to trade from the Mallusk factory, using the familiar brand names.
“Quinnstheprinters.com and Nicholson Bass are trading names of The Bradley Group UK with new investment," the statement said.
A spokesman for the group said it was “business as usual” on the continuing printing operations and there would be no further comment at this time.
Filings that have just appeared at Companies House reveal that managing director Peter Bradley’s directorships of Quinns Belfast (2009) and Nicholson & Bass were terminated on 14 August, the same day that John McGrath was appointed as a director of both companies.
This was two days before the employees were made redundant.
Bradley had previously denied the firms would be entering some form of insolvency, despite some workers insisting that they had initially been told their redundancy monies would be paid by the government.
On 23 August Bradley told PrintWeek that Quinns “will absolutely be fulfilling all their obligations”.
“We are not walking away from it,” he said.
Asked at the same time about the situation regarding creditors of the business, Bradley also stated: “There is no issue in terms of creditors.”
On 4 September the registered offices of the two firms changed to an address in Newry, County Down that is home to more than 70 companies’ registered offices. It is also the correspondence address for McGrath.
McGrath’s connection to the companies is unclear. He was described as an “external investor” by Bradley at the end of last month.
A person with the same name, but born in August 1956 rather than the 1958 listed against the printing businesses, is linked to a number of construction companies in Northern Ireland.
Bradley Group (UK) was registered as having a controlling interest in Quinns Belfast (2009) in June, on the same day that Stephen Bradley MBE, Peter Bradley’s father, ceased to be a person with significant control.
According to the most recent filings at Companies House, Bradley Group 2017, registered in the Isle of Man, has a controlling interest in Nicholson & Bass.
The controlling shareholders of Bradley Group (UK) are Stephen Bradley MBE, Peter Bradley, and Fedeilme Bradley.
Bradley Group (NI), incorporated on 5 August, is controlled by Stephen Bradley MBE, Peter Bradley, and Bradley Group (UK).
Belfast councillor Paul McCusker has contacted PrintWeek to express his concerns about the situation. “I’m a local politician with a lot of constituents caught up in this. Even if they can’t have their jobs back, the company can’t just ignore them,” he said.
“Those who were made redundant deserve to be treated better than this. Particularly by someone with an MBE.”
One former employee said he had contacted Bespoke Insolvency Solutions yesterday, but as the business was not yet formally in receivership could go no further.
"John McGrath is in process [of putting the business into some form of insolvency] so we can't do anything about our redundancy until he does, which should be next week. Then once he does that we can get the IP code to claim. Yet more delaying tactics," he said.
Earlier this week Quinnstheprinters.com issued a ‘flash’ 10% online discount code offer, in a message that stated: “Our maintenance took longer than we expected, we apologise for any inconvenience caused”.
One supplier to the business commented: "It seems they made too many changes, too quickly, and costs have gone out of control."
The Bradley Group companies have sales of around £14m and also include commercial printer Mannin Group on the Isle of Man, which is unaffected by the restructuring.
Quinns specialises in online trade printing, while Nicholson Bass focuses on books, magazines and high-end print such as fine art work.
Stephen Bradley MBE is non-executive chairman at Business Isle of Man, part of the Department for Enterprise on the island.
