Administrators Philip Watkins and Philip Pierce of FRP Advisory were appointed as the administrators of YM Group and intermediate holding company York Mailing Group on 15 June, with the paperwork reaching Companies House on Friday (24 June).
The group’s administration had been expected once the solvent sale of YM’s remaining Lettershop and Go Direct Marketing businesses had been completed.
YM’s three web division businesses: Pindar (Scarborough), YM Chantry and York Mailing collapsed into administration at the end of March, with the loss of more than 500 jobs.
Walstead Group subsequently acquired most of the assets and has since restarted the York Mailing site in Elvingdon as Walstead York.
YM’s backer Pricoa is owed £51m according to the first administration reports regarding the three web sites. Its loan notes sit in YM Group.
The taxpayer and trade creditors are also owed huge sums.
It’s still not clear precisely where the Pricoa money – including an additional £4.5m injected earlier this year – has gone.
It’s also not clear why YM CEO Stephen Goodman and the group’s board decided to plough on with a failing strategy despite being provided with a potential turnaround solution for the group three years ago.
YM Group’s accounts for the year to 31 May 2021 had been flagged as overdue prior to the administration.
In the most recent filing available, for the same period in 2020, the group had sales of £114.8m and made a loss of £7.6m, resulting in a material uncertainty note.
Despite this, YM’s directors were bullish about the future, and stated at the time: “Despite the effects of Covid-19 on performance during the year and through 2020 and into 2021, as a result of the group’s strong track record in winning new business, combined with the new products recently launched that will allow the group to broaden its product offering and enter new markets, the directors are confident that the group remains well positioned to deliver on its growth plans during future years.
“The directors believe that a partial, if not full recovery, will occur during the forecast period which will provide additional benefit to the financial projections.”
Printweek has approached Goodman for comment.
Pricoa has not responded to multiple requests for comment regarding the situation at YM.
