Debts to put creditors through Callhaven hell

Apple reseller Callhaven has gone into administrative receivership leaving non-preferential creditors, including distributors and Apple UK, with the prospect of losing large sums of money when the company's asset value is assessed.

Callhaven was expected to fold under the pressure of heavy financial losses. Sources said some Callhaven staff had joined sales director Jon Pritchard to set up a new company or to join a firm called Genesis, but this has not been confirmed.

Callhaven MD Piyush Shah could not be contacted for comment at press time.

Callhaven is understood to have owed debentures to banks, which are preferential debts, and sources said those debentures may have been sold by the banks.

These debts will be paid out from the firm's assets before other creditors are paid.

Creditors include Aptec, Ingram Micro, Merisel, Midwich Thame and Persona, but the size of the debt will be unknown until a creditors' meeting is held.

Some creditors told PC Dealer they are nervous because their debt is not preferential.

Jon Molyneux, country manager of majority creditor Apple UK, was saddened.

'This is not indicative of the Mac market,' he said. 'They have been a large reseller for many years.'

In its most recent accounts to 31 March 1995, the company lost u494,000 on turnover of u13.6 million. Sources estimate the company's 1996 turnover to March was u7 million.

A former Callhaven supplier said: 'It should have gone to the wall three years ago. The final curtain was when it cut all its advertising and pulled out of Apple Expo.'

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