15 redundant as Manchester’s Blue Chip Marketing appoints administrators

Manchester’s Blue Chip Marketing, a specialist in BTL, shopper and digital marketing, has appointed administrators Leonard Curtis with debts currently standing at just over £1m.

In a report published by Companies House yesterday (November 21) the administrator cited Blue Chip’s largest client “removing work elsewhere with immediate effect and without any notice period” with a resultant loss of around £3.7m of projected income as a key factor in the administration.

In the year to December 31 2021 the company recorded a turnover of £6.5m and a profit of around £213k. The same period ending in 2022 saw turnover drop to £4.7m with a £170k profit, while turnover for the 10 months to October 31, 2023 had fallen again to £1.5m, leading to a loss of around £520k.

A directors loan of just over £600k is shown as outstanding on the company’s books as of September 30, 2023, while the administrators anticipate that arrears of pay and holiday pay to staff will total £28,743. The company also received two Coronavirus Business interruption loans totalling £500k in October 2020 and October 2021.

The company’s directors Ian Morgan and Nicola Thompson are listed in the report as Blue Chip’s sole shareholders, with Thompson holding 95 per cent of shares and Morgan the remainder.

The report adds that all staff at Blue Chip have been made redundant after the directors identified “significant risk of insufficient funds being available to pay staff wages” in September.

Blue Chip Marketing was incorporated on 24 June 2002 and traded from offices at Blackfriars House in Manchester. It had 15 staff at the point at which administrators were appointed, according to the filing.

The company’s website promotes its trademarked “The Method” approach to marketing, a seven-step collaborative process which it promises will help clients “see clearer, think smarter and craft methodical solutions for your brand and business.”

The company’s largest debtors, according to the filing, are London-based creative sales promotion agency Opia Ltd, which is owed just under £395k, and HSBC, with 307k outstanding. Blue Chip’s clients have included Pringles, Bodyform and O2.

Prolific North has contacted Blue Chip Marketing for comment.