Hauliers lose on Barnfather
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by Karen Miles
• Owner-drivers owed thousands of pounds by the collapsed north-east haulier Barnfather are offered little hope this week with the announcement that the company is to go into liquidation.
The move means that once Barnfather's bank has collected its debt any surplus money can go into the hands of the liquidator for creditors. But it seems little cash will remain once National Westminster has collected its outstanding £1.5 million.
Up to 450 owner-drivers are estimated to work for Durhambased Barnfather.
Barnfather will go into liquidation in mid to end November and the creditors' meeting notices will be sent out next week.
Accountant Ernst and Young at Leeds has been approached by the directors of Barnfather to put the company into liquidation. Accountant Touche Ross in Leeds is currently the receiver for book debts, estimated to be around Lim.
Insiders say the company collapsed because it was squeezed by high borrowings and the depth of the recession. One says: "It was the structuring of the finances that was all wrong."
It emerged this week also that ex-Barnfather directors Ian Matthews and David Parkinson have moved to AAH Distribution Services, the arm of industrial conglomerate AAH Holdings which bought 85% of Barnfather's business shortly before the company went into receivership for book debts.
Matthews is general manager at AAH's Leeds depot — formerly a Barnfather site — and Parkinson is working temporarily for the company.
AAH Distribution Services says it will not honour Barnfather's debts. It has bought around 60 vehicles, 100 trailers and taken on about 100 staff to service the £9 million worth of business a year that came in the deal. AAH has also taken over the leases of three of Barnfather's sites.