In an open letter sent to Printweek, and published on his LinkedIn page, Dave McGolpin accused CEO Stephen Goodman of being “substantially out of his depth” by mid-2019, at which point McGolpin said the business was effectively bust having exhausted all its cash reserves.

McGolpin had been a director at Lettershop since 2009. The then-York Mailing acquired Lettershop in 2013, and McGolpin subsequently became part of the 2015 MBO team. 

He left the business amicably in late 2017, but remained a main board director until October 2018, and also continued to be a shareholder and loan note holder. 

“Despite its obvious failings and financial difficulties, at no time or at any other stage during the fateful course of events from 2019 onwards and thereafter was there any attempt made either by Chris Ingram as chairman or Pricoa as the major finance providers to call for a meeting of the investors and shareholders to properly discuss the options for the group, as should have happened in accordance with proper and professional corporate due diligence and directors’ fiduciary duties,” McGolpin stated in his open letter. 

He said that despite YM’s poor performance and heavy losses “Pricoa incredibly continued to provide financial support” with further cash injections introduced as loan notes.

This “only served to increase the group’s already unserviceable debts further”, McGolpin said.

“Furthermore and on each occasion subsequently this also further prejudiced other secured and unsecured creditors by pushing them even further down the pecking order.”

McGolpin said he, and others, were put under pressure to convert a considerable sum of loan notes into preference shares in return for further funding from Pricoa. 

He said he refused due to the absence of any operational restructure, or the removal of Goodman, “or indeed any consideration of an alternative strategy”.

He requested his loan notes be repaid, but said the request was ignored. 

McGolpin said that over the past two years he and Mike Newbould [former YM COO and then non-executive director since the MBO] had repeatedly warned about the inevitable outcome of “continuing to go down the same failed route” of supporting a “failed and inept management team and strategy”.

“These warnings, as well as genuine suspicions and concerns with regard to alleged financial and accounting irregularities were all either ignored or overlooked.”

Pricoa was owed £51m when YM’s web offset division collapsed into administration in March, with unsecured creditors owed millions. 

“This could and should have been avoided… The whole truth needs to come out and those responsible need to be brought fully to account – morally, legally and ultimately financially,” McGolpin stated.

Printweek contacted Goodman, Ingram and YM CFO Lee Richardson for comment. 

Ingram responded, and said: “Mr McGolpin made allegations on certain matters, these were investigated on behalf of the board by an independent consultant and were found to be completely baseless.”

Regarding the potential missed opportunities to turn the business around, Ingram stated: “There was no turnaround plan put directly to the board in 2019. I along with Mike Newbould put forward a restructuring plan to Pricoa which included significant cost reductions throughout the group, many of these were subsequently enacted on by the management team. The proposed restructuring plan, which was backed by a third party financial institution, was rejected by Pricoa.”

Ingram also said that he had “no knowledge of any financial irregularities” and “those [allegations] made by Mr McGolpin were independently investigated and found to be baseless”.

Ingram is among the shareholders to have lost out as a result of the group’s failure. In 2020, £20.25m in shareholder loan notes held by Ingram and Newbould were converted to ordinary share capital. 

Printweek has also made repeated attempts to contact Pricoa for comment about its involvement with YM, but without response. 

Around 500 people lost their jobs when Pindar Scarborough, York Mailing and YM Chantry abruptly ceased trading.

The Lettershop and Go Direct Marketing operations continue under new ownership, while Walstead Group has revived the Elvingdon web offset site as Walstead York.