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Forwarder baffled
Page 6
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by his own debts
The boss of a collapsed freight forwarding firm says he does not know how the massive debts occurred. Dominic Perry reports.
THE DIRECTOR OF a Leedsbased freight forwarding firm which collapsed with almost half a million pounds worth of debt admitted at a creditors' meeting that he cannot explain how the company ran up such huge losses.
Vision Logistics International (VU) ceased trading on Friday 13 August (CM 26 August). It had traded since March 2002 yet seems never to have made a profit. Its first set of accounts, to October 2002, showed a £20,000 loss on a turnover of 145,725. Its second year of trading showed a loss of 172,500 on a turnover of £146.045. Its final financial statements show a total deficit of £458,000, of which £279.000 is owed to subcontractors.
In a statement to a creditors' meeting on 2 September, director Christopher Cantrill admitted that he did not know where the losses had come from: "The director accepts his ultimate responsibility for the failure of the company but... is unable to explain how the deficiency arose when he had already provided the company with sufficient funds to cover the reported losses." Cantrill had loaned it £140,000 of his own money, plus another £68,165 from his other company, Vision Foods.
The firm's accounts showed losses this year of around £83,000 taking the total since it started trading to around £175,000. It adds: -However, this did not explain why there were clearly other unpaid creditors of about £250,000 and Cantrill was not able to resolve the question of how these reported losses had arisen."
The liquidators are now investigating these losses.
However, the report states that an accountant's internal review in June-clearly showed that due to the wrong mix of UK and international work the business could not support the rates being paid to drivers."
The report to the creditors reveals that Cantrill was approached by "an experienced transport professional", believed to be former VIL transport manager Brian Bett, to form VIL. Bett was never a direct employee of the company. He was paid on a commission basis, as -the public face of the business".
Bett left the firm on 27 July, but the liquidators report that he owes it some £21,000 in the form of unpaid loans.
Subcontractors will want to know why a firm struggling to make money was lending money to an individual related to the business.
One subcontractor says: "There's no money left and all I got from Chris Cantrill was that he ploughed money into it and how it isn't his fault. But the buck stops with him as far as I'm concerned."
CM tried to contact both Bert and Cantrill without success.