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Body of evidence
Page 20
Page 21
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The demise of Boalloy Fastruck Bodies was brought about by falling demand, banks tightening up their lending criteria and an unpaid gas bill.
Words: Chris Tindall / Images: Simon Everett
WHEN STAFF AT Boalloy Fastruck Bodies (BFB) were summoned to a meeting by its directors in May this year to be told their jobs were going, they were not surprised.
As one worker tells CM: "IL wasn't a bolt out of the blue. In all fairness, it had been coming for weeks."
In fact, the signs were there at the beginning of the year when, in a bid to stave off an implosion of the business brought about by a fall in demand for bodywork, the Congleton manufacturer put staff on short-time working.
Scale of debt
What has stunned former employees, however, is the scale of the company's debts: £1.4m by the Official Receiver's current reckoning, meaning there is not likely to be any money left in the business to pay creditors In fact, it was creditor British Gas that petitioned for BFB to he wound up by the courts in June. Three months later, the petition was heard and the winding-up process began.
This was not the way director and transport icon Edward Stohart had envisioned the end of the firm.
His plan in May was to put the business into receivership, which might even have involved a sale of some or all of it. British Gas, however, got there first.
Stobart tells CM: "Wc have had a dispute with British Gas. They were overcharging me.
"When we took over, British Gas
wouldn't supply gas until it went onto an emergency rate.
"We just refused to pay the bill. They were way in excess — four times greater than they should have been. It wasn't a few thousand [pounds]."
Stobart adds: We were about to put Boalloy into receivership in May, and that's what I told the workforce. We [had] appointed a company to do that. "Unfortunately, two or three days before we pressed the button, British Gas came in with that petition and that stopped it happening. We couldn't clear debts because of what British Gas did." BFB's subsequent placement into compulsory liquidation means tribunals involving ex-staff attempting to get the money they claim they are still owed have been postponed.
BFB now joins an ever-growing list of companies working within the haulage industry that have struggled to trade in the recession.
It also marks a chapter in Stobart's life that he says particularly saddens him. While he was at the helm of the world's most-famous haulage company, Eddie •Stobart, it was one of Boalloy's biggest customers He told CM shortly after his surprise return to the haulage industry that the Boalloy brand was "extremely powerful" and he would breathe new life into it following its purchase from administrators.
Now he tells CM: "It's very sad, anc it's very sad for myself. Personally, I ww the biggest creditor. I do sympathise with all the staff. They think I wm holding things up, but I wasn't. You can'i do any more, and you have to let the company go."
Energised staff
At the time, staff said they were ener gised by Stobart's stewardship, anc even when he was forced to make redundancies, they told him he haC given it his best shot.
Sharon Barlow told CM: "We were all quite excited when Edward Stobar took over and even when things were looking quite bad.This is just how thing! are everywhere — it's not a good indus try to be in at the moment. We saic thanks for giving it a go, and we al thought 'what a shame:" A spokeswoman for the Official Re. ceiver says its meetings with Stobar have uncovered two primary reason! for the company's failure. One was much lower than expected demanc from the market for Boalloy Fastruck Bodies' products, and the other was the banks' decision to rein in their lending procedures — a situation all too familia] to many firms in the haulage industry.
The Tribunals Service confirms there are multiple case claims against the company and that those schedulec between October and November have been postponed for the time being.
It also says ex-staff have two choices either they try to receive paymen' through the Redundancy Payments Of lice, which is likely to pay out less that they claim to be owed, or they hang or for a tribunal hearing, and if it makes at award, they would be listed as second ary creditors of BFB.
British Gas did not respond. •