Warwick Print Co owners confident over debts

Warwick Printing Co's factory has a £1.75m price tag
Warwick Printing Co's factory has a £1.75m price tag

Bosses at Warwick Printing Company are confident the firm will be able to pay off all its debts, and even leave a six-figure surplus – providing it achieves the expected price tag for its factory.

Directors Paul and Alan Young placed the company into voluntary liquidation on 8 August. 

The brothers have now filed a Declaration of Solvency for the Leamington Spa print firm. 

This states that the directors have made a full enquiry into the affairs of this company, and that, having done so, “we have formed the opinion that this company will be able to pay its debts in full together with interest at the official rate within a period of 12 months from the commencement of the winding-up”.

The declaration states that the business has printing assets worth an estimated £1.18m, but owes Close Brothers just under £1.54m. 

Trade and expense creditors are owed £566,825; employees are due £565,711; and HMRC is owed £126,277 in PAYE and NICs. 

Employees at the company were left up in arms about what they had been told would happen about their wages and redundancy payments prior to the appointment of liquidators from Larking Gowen, and what has subsequently transpired, with employees required to make claims via the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS). 

The Youngs said the business would reimburse the RPS once its assets were sold, while joint liquidator Andrew Kelsall has said that staff due more than the statutory minimum will be paid the balance together with statutory interest from company funds as part of the process. 

One supplier to the business told Printweek: “We do expect to be paid in full, the question is when. It wasn’t how it was portrayed when they announced they were closing.”

A former employee said: “They misled suppliers the same as they did the staff.”

Warwick Printing Company also owes £297,030 on its invoice discounting facility. 

The directors believe the firm will be able to bring in all but £20,000 of its £488,750 book debts and achieve a like-for-like value on £86,000 of stock. 

Warwick’s 1,420sqm freehold factory is on its books valued at nearly £1.5m, but is up for sale with EHB Reeves Commercial for £1.75m. 

Once estimated costs and expenses of £133,125 and estimated interest on the payments of £45,538 are taken into account, the Youngs believe there will be a surplus of around £255,688 at the end of the process.