The 2008 FA Cup winners were placed into administration at a High Court hearing on Friday 17 February 2012 after they were issued with a winding up petition by HM Revenue and Customs on 03 January.

The club received a 10-point deduction due to the administration, deepening the threat of relegation as they now currently sit at the forefront of the relegation battle. Should the club be relegated it would have a detrimental effect on the attract-ability of new investors to keep the club alive.

The club has debts of around £4m, of which around half is owed to HMRC in unpaid tax.
Other creditors include West Bromwich Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bristol City Football Clubs, the Football League itself, and Portsmouth City Council.

The administration order came after the club’s parent company, Convers Sports Initiatives, went into administration in November 2011.

Former professional footballer Trevor Birch, of the accountancy firm Pannell Kerr and Forster, has been appointed by a judge as Portsmouth’s administrator.

The administration allows the club to access its bank accounts after they were frozen following HMRC’s winding-up petition. It also enables Portsmouth FC to continue trading while searching for new owners, but the future of the Fratton Park club is looking uncertain.

It is less than four years since Portsmouth won the FA Cup, beating Cardiff City in the final at Wembley, the club became the first Premier League club to be placed into administration in February 2010. This resulted in them being deducted nine points and relegated at the end of that season. Now, as members of the Football League, the automatic penalty is a 10-point deduction, and that has seen them drop to the relegation zone.

A spokesman from HMRC said they were pleased the court had appointed different administrators to those of parent company, “HMRC is pleased that the Court agreed with our view that the creditors of any business have a right to expect that the administrator in these circumstances is completely independent. This is why we suggested the appointment of PFK whose knowledge of the football industry and lack of previous connections to Portsmouth FC should reassure creditors,” said the spokesman.

Insolvency practitioners are being brought into financially struggling football clubs more and more. Lisa Hogg and David Elliot of Wilson Field Limited were appointed Joint Administrators and then Joint Liquidators of Gretna Football Club when it ran into difficulties; they had no interest with the investors.

Andrew Bilby

The figures released by the Office of National Statistics, show that unemployment has risen by 27,000 to 2.53 million in the three months to the end of January.
Interestingly, the figures released show that the number of British born workers with a job decreased by 208,000 last year, but this is the opposite of what is happening to foreign born workers with figures jumping by 212,000 last year.

The figures also revealed that two thirds of the 48,000 extra unemployed in the last quarter were women. This may be due to family commitments and rising childcare costs. Young workers have also been hit hard, with over a million aged 16-24 now jobless and nearly 250,000 unemployed for more than a year. Perhaps this is due to a shortage of graduate jobs and apprenticeships schemes that are available.

On a more positive note, we have seen employment increase by 60,000 to 29 million, due to a rise of 90,000 in the number of part time employee’s to 6.6 million. On the face of it however, perhaps in reality this reflects an “anything is better than nothing” attitude. Whilst this is a commendable approach it shows that people are having to accept part time employment when they would perhaps prefer full time.

On the other hand, there are signs of growth, with the number of job vacancies seeing a rise to 476,000 in the three months to January. Following this, economists are suggesting the worsening employment outlook had eased, and perhaps the economy will return to modest growth in the first quarter and avoid recession.

Historically, the UK has seen peaks of unemployment with a high of 11.90% recorded in April 1984 and a record low of 3.40% in December 1973. The previous unemployment rate averaged at 7.22% from 1971 until 2010. The current rate of 8.4% does paint a bleak picture, however historically and with the suggestion of growth there could be a light at the end of the tunnel for everyone.

The run up to Christmas soon arrives and slowly, slowly do you creep into your overdraft and fall into the red? Christmas passes, and coming out of the red is the next task. Time now to get your finances back on track ready for the Spring and Summer months of holidays, house repairs and enjoying life!

Simple steps can be taken in a bid to organise your finances. Review your finances regularly, open your Bank Statements, Credit Card Statements and don’t be afraid to challenge any high bills and question your utility bills – you never know, a phone call to your utility provider could potentially save a few pounds and help you keep on top of putting them all important meter readings in. If you have any unopened post mounting, OPEN THEM. It’s time to remove your head from the sand and start getting your finances in order.

If you do have Credit Card bills, Loans or the odd Catalogue from Christmas outstanding, call the Finance Provider or if it is to the stage of a Debt Collection Agency – CALL THEM!! Don’t be afraid of facing up to it. More than ever companies that provide finance and Debt Collection Agencies are heavily cultured by the “Treating Customers Fairly Principles”, which is commonly known as TCF. There are six desired outcomes that the FSA are aiming to achieve by embedding them in businesses’. Please be clear, Debt Collection Agencies are not regulated by the FSA but are regulated by the CSA, they do however follow the principles as agents of their subscribers, subscribers being the original creditor (Finance Provider).

The objective of TCF is to create a fairer and more effective financial industry. One of the six outcomes that the FSA are trying to achieve and the most fitting to you, if you are dealing with financial pressures would be the following outcome –
“Where consumers receive advice, the advice is suitable and takes account of their circumstances”

This can provide the Consumer, Finance Provider and/or Debt Collection Agency with a mutual understanding to provide a solution that fits all parties, where the Finance Provider and Debt Collection Agency is receiving repayments against the bill or debt and the consumer has an affordable repayment that is realistic and manageable in order to provide a win, win solution for all parties.

Making repayments is all about being realistic to your financial capabilities, whilst meeting the needs of your creditor, but please be honest with them. Being honest, open and truthful and at all costs staying in regular contact with your Finance Provider, Creditor and/or Debt Collection Agency is a must. If you have a change in circumstances keep all parties informed. Don’t avoid the red letters!

Spring Cleaning your Finances, is all about taking your head out the sand, keeping all communication lines open and most importantly being honest with yourself. Open your eyes to the options out there to take the right steps to a bright Spring and a prosperous Summer.

For free confidential advice please do not hesitate to contact Wilson Field or call 0800 458 3320

In many redundancy scenarios, employees can be left with unclear answers about how much they can expect to receive, who the payment will come from and the timing of any payments.

Whilst the government (in the form of the Redundancy Payments Service) issues guidance for employees and provides contact numbers for individual offices, those with experience of attempting to contact them will appreciate how difficult, time consuming and frustrating this can be!!

Payments are made up of arrears of wages, accrued holiday pay, notice pay and redundancy (subject to length of service).The Redundancy Payments Service will pay each element of claim upto a maximum of £430 per week.

At Wilson Field Limited we appreciate the devastating effect redundancy can have to individuals and families and therefore we prioritise employee claims to ensure they receive their entitlement as quickly as possible and also provide support and assistance to individuals.

To make the process run as smoothly as possible, here are a few guideline points;

Return your RP1 form to the Insolvency Practitioners office as soon as possible
Ensure your RP1 form is completed as fully as possible
Don’t be afraid to ask questions-call the Insolvency Practitioners office and ask for help
Understand your claim and its different elements
Never send your RP1 direct to the Redundancy Payments Service
Don’t forget to return all forms
Acknowledgement of the payment you will receive will be sent direct to employee’s from the Redundancy Payments Service
Notice pay is subject to deductions such as jobseeker’s allowance, irrelevant of whether you’ve claimed. Therefore ensure you sign on if entitled.
Check your payment once received; contact the Insolvency Practitioner if incorrect
You should check dividend prospects with the Insolvency Practitioner regarding any balance of your entitlement

If in doubt, please contact Wilson Field or contact us on 0800 458 3320 for FREE confidential advice.

Life in industry is tough and is going to be tough for some time. We have all become familiar with Health & Safety requirements and procedures. Many of us have cursed them and the red tape associated with them but despite that have to admit that they have prevented accidents and saved lives.

In the past I have met many business owners who, even in difficult times, have been obsessed with matters such as tax efficiency when in fact as a matter of priority they should have been focussing on cash flow and survival.  Those business owners with foresight are undertaking “risk assessments” on all aspects of their companies – a sort of SWOT analysis to identify what might threaten their very existence and then taking steps to minimise risks.

As the manager of any size business, what can you do?

The starting point is having quality management information – an essential management tool. Scientia potentia est – “knowledge is power“. Trading blindly without such information is a high risk strategy.

Examples of some of the many risks which are quite easy to identify –

• heavy reliance on one customer or a very small number of major customers
• one owner or key staff member with no succession in place
• dependence on one supplier
• a single source of credit
• exposure to currency or interest rate fluctuations

Any exceptional dependence results in vulnerability. There isn’t always a quick fix but planning to spread concentrations, succession planning and using multiple credit lines and hedging products can help.

It is always worth considering outsourcing – either outsourcing current operations or bringing in-house services which are currently outsourced. If your management information is such that it can separate various operations into cost centres this is a huge benefit. Some areas which are worthy of consideration may be:

• Transport and haulage – this often evolves, perhaps starting with an individual vehicle and growing into a small fleet to deliver your products. If your vehicles are either standing idle for prolonged periods or driving around empty it may be worth looking at outsourcing. Another alternative may be to hive the haulage into a separate business and seek additional customers to ensure the fleet is profitable.
• Credit control – many businesses are either not very efficient at collecting money or have in-house credit controllers. If you happen to be looking for an additional line of credit it may be worth considering factoring. A good factoring company will have an efficient credit control function. The saving in paying a credit controller will off-set the cost of the factoring facility.
• Marketing  – important to any business, but  smaller and medium sized companies who cannot justify the costs often ignore it completely  - and wait for the phone to ring. If your business is not actively marketing rest assured that your competitors will be.
• Project Management – often a false economy to undertake in-house. What is frequently overlooked is the lost production of the member of staff allocated to the temporary role and the fact that professional project managers are generally more effective. If lost production isn’t an issue …do you really need that member of staff?

Outsourcing isn’t always the right option – each business is different. There may be functions which you currently outsource where you could add value by bringing in-house. If, for example, you find your business has surplus clerical staffing capacity, rather than consider redundancies it may be financially feasible to bring certain operations in-house, eg   Payroll processing. Inexpensive, off-the-shelf software is available which once set up makes processing payroll simple.

So, if you are running a business and you want to survive, the worst thing you can do is ….absolutely nothing. Inaction, inertia and complacency can result in disaster, whereas a good level of awareness and forward planning gives your company the best chance of seeing 2012 through.

For free confidential advice, please call Wilson Field on 0800 458 3320

Unless you have chosen an insolvency-related career or you have been unfortunate enough to have experienced severe financial problems in the past, there is a good chance that you will have limited knowledge of what services are available from an insolvency practitioner.

Many people see headlines about large employers “going into Administration” and immediately assume the worst – it all sounds pretty grim and terminal. And some of it is – particularly if business owners fail to take early advice when they face financial difficulty. But the insolvency industry does much more than “bust” companies.

Administration is a powerful tool. It is a temporary arrangement whereby insolvency practitioners are appointed by the court to take control of the company. During their period of office they look into the viability of the business to see if part or all of it can be salvaged. And whilst the company is in Administration it is in a protective bubble – safe from potential actions taken by creditors, such as bailiffs seizing essential equipment, until a solution can be found.

Recently the retail group, Peacocks, went into administration. Part of that group is the women’s clothing retailer Bonmarché and this has been sold for an undisclosed sum. Although there will be some job losses, 2400 jobs will be preserved. Historically, the alterative would have been that the company would have simply ceased to exist and all the staff would have been unemployed.

The outcome of administration varies tremendously. In theory, the administrators could manage the business until it has recovered and then hand it back to the directors. In reality there are usually underlying problems which frequently result in the healthy parts of the business being sold on. Once no further improvements or sales can be brought about the administrators role is completed and they usually then take on the role of liquidators.

Running a business is not easy. If you are running a business, whatever the size, and are worried about any issues, the worst thing you can do is nothing. Discuss the problems without delay with a licensed insolvency practitioner. They have a number of tools at their disposal including access to private investors and specialist lenders.

For free confidential advice, please contact Wilson Field.

Is 2012 a good time to start your business? The reality is that there are businesses out there now which are not only surviving but thriving. It is also true that many businesses fail when the economy is booming. But there is no doubt that starting a business in such economic conditions is much tougher.

Nobody goes into business expecting it to fail but if you are looking to start a business and want to survive it’s worth knowing common factors which often occur in failed businesses.

• Lack of professional advice. You need an accountant and a solicitor before you start trading to advise you on issues such as VAT and your legal responsibilities. You also need to decide whether to be a sole trader or form a partnership or to trade your business as a limited company. There are many reasons to incorporate, not least of which is to protect personal assets, such as your home, should things go wrong.

• Poor cash flow. Each business which ceases to trade will have its own reasons, but whatever the underlying cause, the crunch comes when a business grinds to a halt because of a lack of cash. You need sufficient cash to continue trading until the business becomes established. Don’t assume that it will be easy to raise finance – it would be almost impossible for a new business in the current climate.

• Concentrations. Being heavily dependent on one or a small number of customers, suppliers, products, staff, etc., makes your business vulnerable.

• Lack of planning and monitoring. Well managed businesses invariably plan well and are constantly monitoring their results. It enables a business owner to identify and address problems at an early stage and even foresee some and take evasive action.

If, despite your best efforts your business runs into financial difficulty don’t delay taking specialist advice. The sooner you ask for help the better chance of survival your business will have. And a good sense of humour and a “can-do” attitude will help you survive the ups and downs.  For free advice please contact Wilson Field.

One of the main objectives with pre-packs is to rescue businesses and equally importantly preserve jobs – both of paramount importance particularly in the current economic climate.

However, unsecured creditors often see what they perceive to be a sale of the assets taking place without creditor knowledge for a fraction of the original worth. They understandably feel that it would be much more transparent if the assets were offered to the creditors instead of what is often seen as an underhand sale “cheap” to the directors or previous owners thus leaving creditors with little or no dividend.

In reality, this often isn’t a practical option.  Some businesses have few tangible assets but have significant goodwill, which can simply evaporate if word gets out – the business collapses and takes the jobs with it. In other cases the assets are specialist or perishable and only have a limited appeal to purchasers. There are instances too where the cost of moving heavy plant exceeds its value.

In a previous existence I owned a cleaning business and was an unsecured creditor when a hotel which I cleaned went through a pre-pack. Whilst it did not bring my business down it was a severe body blow – the impact on cash flow and profit. However, what many creditors initially overlook is the loss of turnover moving forward. In my case I was more than happy to work for the new company (on a pro forma basis!) rather than lose the future business on top of the bad debt I had sustained. And there were 18 part time jobs at risk at that location.

Next year may see some changes in legislation. It is proposed that administrators be required to give creditors three days’ notice of the pre-pack. The risk is that notification of creditors will increase the likelihood of customers cancelling contracts, staff leaving and suppliers withholding their goods – effectively many businesses would vanish before a sale takes place. A change in legislation looks likely but a balance needs to be reached or we could end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

For free confidential advice, please do not hesitate to contact Wilson Field on 0800 458 3320

Operation Christmas Child is an annual project carried out by Samaritan’s Purse. Each year in the run up to Christmas, Samaritan’s Purse collects presents to send to children who wouldn’t ordinarily receive a gift.

The idea is simple: cover a shoe box in brightly coloured paper and fill it with small presents. The shoeboxes are then shipped to children all over the world to open on Christmas Day!

For the past few years I’ve made one shoebox for a girl and one shoebox for a boy. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that Father Christmas will have 2 extra presents to give!

This year, I decided to inspire my colleagues at Wilson Field to join in! For the past few weeks we have been buying, cutting, sticking, papering and creating. The result was a spectacular tower of shiny, sparkly, multi-coloured shoeboxes of all different shapes and sizes!

Thanks to the time and effort taken by everyone who joined in, we have managed to collect a fabulous 15 boxes and the lives of 15 children will be brighter this Christmas!

I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part!

Claire Taylor

Latest statistics from the Government Insolvency Service show a 6.5 per cent increase in total company liquidations in England and Wales in 2011 compared to 2010.

However, industry specific figures showing the rate of companies going into administration vary dramatically.

A 38 per cent increase in administrations within the construction industry this year demonstrates how the building sector is still taking a hit. A 34 per cent decrease in administrations in the transport, storage and communication industry may seem positive news but the figures suggest a different story.

Administration figures usually closely mirror liquidation figures as one often leads to the other.  While the overall figures show that the total of corporate liquidations has increased by 6.5 per cent, the breakdown of administrations within the different industries vary much more dramatically and illustrate the effect the recession has had on various trades.

“When the figures from the most recent quarter of 2011 are compared with the same quarter in 2010, almost all industries have seen a rise in the number of companies going into administration. The manufacturing industry has seen an increase of 7 per cent, construction has shot up by 38 per cent, and administrations within the wholesale and retail trade are up 20 per cent, while hotel and restaurant administrations have increased by 26 per cent.

A figure that stands out is the 34 per cent decrease of companies going into administration in the transport, storage and communication industry. Many might assume that this is a sign of improving business within the industry but I’d view this figure with caution. I would say that it illustrates the extreme challenges this industry has faced over the last two or three years. It demonstrates that the haulage and transport companies were the first to be hit hard by the economic downturn and many companies fell early on, leaving fewer companies to go into administration as time progressed.”

A lack of consumer confidence is probably to blame for the continuing increase in corporate liquidations and the Government needs to focus on restoring that confidence.

The overall increase in corporate insolvencies and increase of administrations within the retail and hospitality industries is unsurprising. A focus needs to be placed on improving consumer confidence which in turn should lead to growth for businesses.

It is likely the retail and leisure industries will take another hit in the first quarter of 2012 as those industries face a dip once the festive season has passed.

The companies that survive will be the proactive thinkers and those who act in advance.

Putting off seeking professional advice is key to not falling at the first hurdle. Many people find taking that first step a challenging and difficult step, but it is crucial if you are to survive.

Despite challenging economic times for many businesses, Wilson Field has recently expanded its own portfolio to open an office in the West Midlands, complementing its existing bases in Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds.

Having built a reputation for professional and personal service as well as exceptional industry knowledge, we are confident that Wilson Field Ltd can continue to help businesses both locally and across the UK with their business recovery, insolvency and debt solution needs.

To speak to an expert from Wilson Field’s free advice line call 0800 458 3320 or visit our website at www.wilsonfield.co.uk.