Demolition firm Squibb Group was wound up in the High Court this morning, ending 75 years of trading.
The ax fell during a hearing in the Bankruptcy and Companies Court which was initially supposed to hear an application for administration presented by the firm’s managers.
However, following an agreement between the company’s lawyers and creditor HMRC, Judge Matthew Parfitt handed down a ruling on a separate winding-up petition, due to be heard later in the week.
The judge said: “It seems to me that for what it’s worth there is a question about the reduction of time … that I am prepared to pursue and make an order winding up that petition.”
The court appointed the official receiver as the company’s provisional liquidator, rejecting a request by Squibb’s lawyer to name two firms that have handled the company’s financial affairs as it tries to stay afloat .
HMRC lawyer Giselle McGowan objected to the appointments, saying there had been a “lack of communication” from the companies.
He also claimed that the size of the debt owed to the tax authority was “not being properly dealt with” by the companies. HMRC claims Squibb owes it £18m.
None of the proposed liquidators appeared in court to respond to these allegations.
In refusing to appoint liquidators, Mr Justice Parfitt also noted that six other creditors were not present in court to give their views on the matter.
The receiver will now start a process to appoint liquidators, which is expected to take around eight weeks.
The court proceedings followed the failure of attempts to agree a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), under which creditors could have agreed a long-term payment plan.
Squibb reported a pre-tax profit of £274,000 on revenue of £32m in its latest published accounts, for the year ending 31 January 2022.
At the time, the company owed creditors £26.2m, but debtors owed it £18.7m and it had other assets worth £18.1m, including £35,423 in cash.
The company extended the 2022/23 financial year by six months and was only due to present its next financial accounts on 30 April 2024.
The company was led by CEO Leslie Squibb, the great-grandson of company founder Harry Squibb, who joined the company in 1987.
His father, Leslie Snr, was chairman of the company until his death in 2020.
In March, the company was one of 10 companies fined by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for breaching competition law through hedge bidding arrangements.
Squibb was fined £2m but launched legal action against the CMA in August last year, pointing out that it was only involved in “a small number of offences” and saying that the calculation of the sum of the fine was incorrect.
