Safestyle UK subsidiaries owed over £30m at time of window firm's collapse

Around 700 jobs were lost as a result of three subsidiaries of the Bradford headquartered company being placed into administration at the end of October, with the intention of the business being wound down.

At the time Barnsley East MP Stephanie Peacock said it was “absolutely appalling” staff from its Wombwell manufacturing factory were told in the car park they had all lost their jobs. Union GMB blamed “mismanagement” for the firm’s failure.

More details about its collapse have now come to light.

Statement of affairs on the financial positions of the three Safestyle UK’s subsidiaries - HPAS Limited, Style Group Holdings Limited and Style Group UK Limited - have now been published, detailing the amounts owed to creditors.

Across the three subsidiaries, HMRC are owed £11.9m, trade creditors £11.8m and staff £4.2m. A further £1.6m debt to customers is also listed along with £3.9m to unspecified creditors. The total owed across those five groups comes to £33.6m, with further sums such as healthcare deductions and employee court orders also outstanding.

It is too early to say what return, if any, those owed money will get back but further reports detailing proposals by administrators Interpath are due to be filed in the coming weeks.

However, across the three subsidiaries the shortfall between realisable assets and what is owed stands at over £29m - meaning many creditors are unlikely to receive anything back at the end of the administration process.

The accounts for HPAS Limited show there are £5.8m in realisable assets connected to that subsidiary.

However, £7.7m is owed to HM Revenue and Customs alone.

A total of £11.7m is also owed to other businesses, as well as just over £4m to staff.

Of that figure, £404,000 is listed as being ‘preferential’ for potential returns and covers areas such as wage arrears, untaken holiday pay and pension scheme arrears.

The remaining £3.6m of unsecured employee claims is understood to relate to areas such as redundancy payouts.

The report also lists more than 1,800 customers being owed £1.6m in regard to pre-paid deals on window and door installations.

However, administrators have already agreed to sell the order book of HPAS to Anglian Windows to enable customer orders to be fulfilled.

There is a total £19.7m shortfall between what HPAS owed at the time of administration and its realisable assets.

The statement of affairs for Style Group UK Limited details a further £5.5m gap, with no assets expected to be available to pay back creditors.

The majority of its debt figure is made up of £4.2m owed to HMRC.

The third subsidiary, Style Group Holdings Limited, owes £3.9m to unspecified preferential creditors but has an expected £200,000 in realisable assets - meaning the total deficit between what it owes and what can be repaid is £3.7m.

When Safestyle collapsed in October, factors including an “unseasonally warm September” were cited as factors in the company’s problems.

A statement by administrators said at the time: “In common with a number of companies across the home improvement sector, Safestyle UK has had to navigate a number of pressures which have impacted trading, including high cost inflation, ongoing economic uncertainty and fragile consumer confidence.

"In recent months, these pressures have been exacerbated by an unseasonally warm September, which has dampened customer demand.”