Category: News

Sunderland-based Ash Distribution is being shut down by its parent company.

Iain Elliott – CEO of Ash’s parent company Canford Audio – said that “the activities of our Ash Distribution Business Unit no longer fit within the core business strategy of the company” and that it is shifting resources to the main Canford business.

The distributor has been in operation since 1997 and will close its doors on Wednesday 28 February 2018.

Elliott confirmed that Ash’s website will remain open for some time after the end of the month, to process orders in the “Ash Web-Only Closing Down Sale” until all stocks are cleared.

Existing customers will keep their account facilities and “will be transferred over to Canford’s product range, with the same credit terms that are in place”.

In addition, all existing contract and warranties with Ash Distribution will be honoured by Canford Audio.

Elliott added: “I would like to take this opportunity of thanking you for your loyal custom in the past and sincerely hope you will continue to trade with Canford for many years to come.”

OneCom has bought the customer base of True Telecom after the VAR fell into administration at the end of last year.

The move will see True Telecom’s 3,000 customers move over to OneCom.

True Telecom cunning plan was to build a strong customer base through internal sales teams, and then sell this customer base to another telecoms firm for a multiple of the base’s gross profit margin.

The outfit operated at a “significant trading loss” with its comms services, but hoped the sales of its customer base would keep the model viable.

The company went tits up when one buyer did not make an expected payment of £1.4 million. In September last year HMRC issued a winding-up petition and administrators were subsequently called in.

Speaking of the deal, OneCom CEO Darren Ridge said: “It is our intention to support True Telecom customers to the very best of our ability in order to provide them with the value and quality of offering that have become synonymous with Onecom over the years.

“Those joining us will immediately benefit from Onecom’s award-winning customer service and unified communications expertise.”

According to the administrator’s report, True Telecom reported a turnover of just under £3 million in the full year ending September 2016, and a net loss of £275,503.

HMRC is the firm’s largest creditor and it is owed £554,516.

The administrator looking into Millennium Business Systems’ (MBS) woes has said the company went bust owing £2.1 million to 197 unsecured creditors.

The outfit went bust after a failed attempt to refinance left it with no choice but to call in administrators.

A report, available to view on Companies House, has revealed that MBS had been close to getting the cash but a winding-up petition was filed by a supplier after a £237,508 invoice went unpaid.

As a result, the firm ceased trading on 27 November, with 30 members of staff let go immediately and four kept on helping with the administration process.

Of the 197 unsecured creditors the largest are Exertis (£408,600), Tech Data (£350,000), Midwich (£310,600) and Westcoast (£171,600). HM Revenue and Customs is also owed £114,200.

There are shedloads of resellers and distributors are owed varying amounts under £50,000.

The administrator said that there will be money left over to pay unsecured creditors once secured creditors have been paid, but stopped short of giving any guidance on how much this is likely to be.

The firm’s employees are owed £41,000 and the administrator said they are likely to be paid in full.

In the full year ending 31 December 2016 MBS reported revenue of just over £8 million and in the following year to 31 December 2017 was expecting to see year-on-year growth of 35 per cent, according to the report.

By August 2017 that this was not going to be achieved and MBS began to struggle as a result of investing in staff ahead of the anticipated growth.

Beancounters at Context have added up some numbers and worked out that revenues from sales of business-targeted PCs through Western Europe’s most significant distributors were up in Q4 2017 despite a drop in volume.

The thought is that this was only possible because distributors had to jack up their prices a bit. Revenue growth was driven by a continuous year on year rise in distributors’ average sale prices (ASPs), which offset the effects of lower volume. The ASP of commercial PCs in the quarter was €646, 12 percent higher than in the previous year.

PC ASPs have been on the rise since the end of 2016 as a result of exchange-rate fluctuations, changes in component costs and a beneficial increase in demand for higher priced products, claimed Context.

In Q4 2017, as in earlier quarters of the year, there was a significant contribution from demand for higher priced products as commercial customers continued to focus on improved quality, performance and mobility.

Most volume growth in the segment came from the high end of the market. There was a 10 percent increase in sales of ultra-slim portables and a nine percent rise in those of notebook workstations.

Context senior analyst Marie-Christine Pygott said that PC pricing and revenues in the commercial segment are expected to continue to benefit from the shift in demand to higher-end products as users maintain their focus on high quality, high performance and, often, high portability.

The year on year revenue growth for business-targeted PCs in the UK was 13.2 percent, the region being beaten in Europe only by Poland with 13.9 percent.

As for other major European economies, Germany grew by 9.8 percent, France by 5.1 percent, and Italy dropped by 2.2 percent.