Courts

[LooeyUK]

Did a search and couldnt find anything about it so.

Courts (UK) Limited, which operates 88 furniture stores across England and Wales, was placed into administration on Tuesday 30 November 2004.
Administration is a process where expert insolvency professionals are appointed to look at options for a business that is unable to pay its debts. Mick McLoughlin and Chris Laverty, both licensed insolvency practitioners and partners of KPMG LLP, were appointed as administrators over Courts Plc and Courts (UK) Limited (‘Courts’). Please see the press releases on the Courts website at www.courts.co.uk for updates on the progress of the administrations.

[ian@huth]

I have been following the news on this as my daughter is waiting for a new suite from them to be delivered. News stories can be found by going to http://news.google.co.uk/news?q=cour...ab=nn&oi=newsr

[homealone]

There appears to have been many people affected by this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4059717.stm

- the worst ones, to me, are where people were still being encouraged to take out extended warranties.

[iadom]

Whilst it is a great shame for the people who will lose their jobs and also for those who lose deposits etc, I feel no great loss at the demise of this company.

Whilst most advertising can be "economical with the truth", this firm took it to extremes.

A couple of years ago I got a leaflet through the door from them. One item advertised was a Hotpoint washing machine, being in the trade it caught my eye. It was advertised as "now only £299, reduced from £399, massive £100 saving". It was in fact an end of line production model that you could pick up anywhere else for around £250. In the microscopic small print at the bottom it stated " was on sale at this price between 10/10/02 and 15/10/02 ( or something similar) at our branch in ( some obscure southern address)

Just within the law but not a firm that I would ever do business with.

I mean, would you trust a firm that used Bruce Forsyth in its TV adverts.

Originally Posted by iadom

Whilst it is a great shame for the people who will lose their jobs and also for those who lose deposits etc, I feel no great loss at the demise of this company.

Whilst most advertising can be "economical with the truth", this firm took it to extremes.

A couple of years ago I got a leaflet through the door from them. One item advertised was a Hotpoint washing machine, being in the trade it caught my eye. It was advertised as "now only £299, reduced from £399, massive £100 saving". It was in fact an end of line production model that you could pick up anywhere else for around £250. In the microscopic small print at the bottom it stated " was on sale at this price between 10/10/02 and 15/10/02 ( or something similar) at our branch in ( some obscure southern address)

Just within the law but not a firm that I would ever do business with.

I mean, would you trust a firm that used Bruce Forsyth in its TV adverts.

i thought Courts sold furniture and carpets. Didnt know they sold white goods too

[Paul]

From the courts.co.uk site

If you have paid a deposit and have not been contacted to pay the balance it is most likely that “your� goods have not been delivered to Courts by the manufacturers. If that is the case it will not be possible for us to provide you with any further goods as we will not be receiving any further deliveries from manufacturers.
If you are in this situation and have paid your deposit by debit/credit card, you should contact your card provider. Subject to the rules of your card issuer, you may be able to claim a refund direct from them.
If you have paid by cash or by cheque, unfortunately this means that you are an unsecured creditor in the administration. This means that you will not receive any goods and you will not receive a refund as Courts is insolvent and has no money to pay its creditors. The administrators will be sending a report to all creditors within 8 weeks of their appointment setting out their proposals and the prospects of any money being available for the unsecured creditors. For the avoidance of doubt you will also not be able to claim goods from your local store in lieu of the deposit that you have paid.

Wonder how many new orders were taken by staff while the company knew it was going to go into administration Good thing we went elsewhere for our carpets recently.

Originally Posted by Paul

From the courts.co.uk site

Wonder how many new orders were taken by staff while the company knew it was going to go into administration Good thing we went elsewhere for our carpets recently.

They wouldnt have known. It was the banks that forced them into adminstration

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by gary_580

They wouldnt have known. It was the banks that forced them into adminstration

Company accountants are not stupid, unless they were expecting a massive amount of outside investment that suddenly fell through then you can pretty much guarantee that they knew (along with the company directors) that they were about to become insolvent.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Bifta

Company accountants are not stupid, unless they were expecting a massive amount of outside investment that suddenly fell through then you can pretty much guarantee that they knew (along with the company directors) that they were about to become insolvent.

My thoughts exactly, unless they were expecting a minor miracle then it would have been known in the weeks before the announcement that insolvency was going to occur and yet staff were allowed to keep pushing people to pay for extended warranties etc that were never going to be worth the piece of paper the receipts were printed on.

[Theodoric]

What is stopping the administrators allowing some people to receive their goods is that, and many of you may think that this is a sign of the times, they have been prevented from opening the stores because of threatening behaviour towards the staff by some customers.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by Bifta

Company accountants are not stupid, unless they were expecting a massive amount of outside investment that suddenly fell through then you can pretty much guarantee that they knew (along with the company directors) that they were about to become insolvent.

Which is the situation they were in, the directors were in discussion with the banks over renewal of thier financing. When this was under discussion it is reasonable to assume that it will be renewed and business as usual.
When it became clear that it would not be renewed or not at least to the extent necessary, the directors to protect themselves against "trading while insolvent" have no option but to put the company into liquidation.
Does look like a bit of a trading mess, financial black hole, multimillion £ VAT bill o/s.
But then look at the hit / mess MFI have got in implementing thier new SAP(?) accounting / production system. They estimate it will cost them £80M in turnover this year.

Originally Posted by Bifta

Company accountants are not stupid, unless they were expecting a massive amount of outside investment that suddenly fell through then you can pretty much guarantee that they knew (along with the company directors) that they were about to become insolvent.

but company accountants dont take orders from customers and certainly wouldnt have spread the message amongst the shop floor staff as that sort of information materially affects share prices.

So i stand by my comment "They wouldnt have known"

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by gary_580

but company accountants dont take orders from customers and certainly wouldnt have spread the message amongst the shop floor staff as that sort of information materially affects share prices.

So i stand by my comment "They wouldnt have known"

The comment you replied to

Wonder how many new orders were taken by staff while the company knew it was going to go into administration

Notice the word "company", shop floor staff are not the sole make-up of a company. The company directors could have easily dreamt up some excuse to pass down the ranks to prevent further guarantee's being sold.

[sir_drinks_alot]

you can bet your life.that courts will be the main story on watchdog,
this week

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Bifta

The comment you replied to



Notice the word "company", shop floor staff are not the sole make-up of a company. The company directors could have easily dreamt up some excuse to pass down the ranks to prevent further guarantee's being sold.

It is not guarantees that are the issue but orders being taken for goods with deposits or the full purchase price being taken at the time of order. Courts, in common with most companies that sell furniture, etc., only carry display stock and order from their suppliers when a customer places their order. If any instruction was given to stop taking orders then the company may as well have locked their doors at that point.