Hall & Roche director defends salvaging WF Hall’s assets
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
By Joanna Bourke
A HALL & ROCHE Logistics director has defended buying some of the assets of its related haulage business, WF Hall & Son, before it entered liquidation.
Conor Roche, a director at both businesses, tells CM he moved 15 employees and 10 HGVs to Hall & Roche Logistics, from WF Hall & Son, which left a £817,331 deiciency when it appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as liquidator on 4 April (CM 21 April).
Roche argues that WF Hall had been a successful company until it became a victim of “bad circumstances” in late 2010. “We had payment issues with customer Falcon Steel in December 2010, so we put a lien on 12 loads of its steel for the £150,000 it owed us. Its directors then told us they were entering liquidation and that the steel had been bought by another company in late November. We argued that because we had a general lien this should not matter. So we took the case to court in January.” A judge deemed WF Hall’s case was not strong enough and awarded damage costs to the new owners of the steel.
Roche adds: “Hall & Roche is a separate business from WF Hall so we felt it was better to salvage some of the company assets and save at least some of the 50 jobs in jeopardy.” One creditor, owed more than £2,000, says: “I don’t think it’s right that the directors can get into such a bad inancial position and get away without paying creditors. And yet they can continue to trade as ‘business as usual’ . ”