Prospect Mailing Services has been bought out of administration by its sister company, St Ives Direct Bradford.
The direct mailing firm, also based in Bradford, was placed into administration earlier this month, with parent company, Cogent B2B previously describing it as a “distressed business.”
“Following the previous interim statements, the Joint Administrators are now pleased to confirm that a going concern sale of Prospect Mailing Services Limited (in Administration) (“PMS”) took place to St Ives Direct Bradford Limited (“St Ives”) late on Friday 22 November 2013,” read a statement from the administrators.
“The completion of the sale took place following a marketing campaign, which elicited interest from several parties. After a period of negotiations it was St Ives, represented by Kevin Dunstall which was the successful party, with an offer of £400,000. The offer from St Ives was the highest by some distance, representing the maximum return for creditors in this matter. The completion of the sale has also ensured on-going trading of the established mailing firm and protects those employees retained by the business.
“As a part of the restructuring process, redundancies were regrettably carried out. This was an unavoidable necessity to reduce the overheads previously faced by the business, giving it the best chance of survival going forward in what remain challenging trading conditions.”
Before the firm went into administration, Cogent B2B’s chief executive, Kevin Dunstall told the Telegraph & Argus, that the only way to save PMS would be to merge it will St Ives Direct, which it bought for £8m in September. Last month, he told the paper that the merger was “positive for Yorkshire and Bradford” and there were plans to recruit 300 more staff and create a company with a £47m turnover.
Prolific North tried to get a comment from Cogent B2B this morning, but there was no answer and Prospect Mailing Services told us that they were “too busy” to talk to the media.
