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No explanation for collapse
Page 8
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Chris Tindall reports on the demise of a haulage firm whose performance
plan didn't work out. One creditor describes it as a "pathetic performance"...
THE DIRECTOR OF a Midlands haulage firm forced into voluntary liquidation denies he has done anything underhand, but he is unwilling to say what is to blame for the company's collapse. Swifts Haulage Contractors suspended trading on 25 February following seven months of difficult trading with debts of more than £220,000. The firm was created following the purchase
of a related firm, Swifts Thnsport (Bromsgrove) in May 2002 by Steve Durbin and Paresh Mehta.
Swifts Haulage came into being to service the day-to-day business of the firm with Swifts Transport (Bromsgrove) acting as its nontrading parent company.
Swifts' director is Steve Durbin, and business development manager is Frank Owens. They have been involved with a string of financially troubled firnis under the auspices of their Diamond Acceptances company (CM16 May 2002). The liquidator's initial report states that Durbin and Owens put together a business plan for Swifts Haulage in May 2002.
Drivers were employed and trucks rented in anticipation of the performance of this plan. However, several contracts did not materialise and rates were lower than the plan allowed for. The report adds that Owens was soon removed from the business, and the firm never fully recovered
from the financial setbacks.
Swifts had one principal customer, KTC Edibles, operating from its Wednesbury premises and renting some vehicles from it.
Warren Billingham owns FG Foster Haulage, which is owed £10,000. he says: "It's a pathetic performance by Mr Durbin. You know you can't afford a load before you do it."
Keith Baird, for Belfast-based Joseph Baird Transport, says it might only receive 15% of the £18,700 it is owed.
Durbin is owed more than £60,000 himself — he had to remortgage his home after investing £72,000 in Swifts Haulage to keep the firm afloat. He says he fully understands the creditors' sentiments.
"For two years I haven't had a salary," he adds. "I have had threats against my life from creditors, which is not pleasant."
CMwas unable to contact Frank Owens as we went to press.