Rebirth of Genisys after administration troubles
VAR enters voluntary administration while former directors have emerged at the helm of a new company
Oxfordshire-based VAR Genisys Limited went into voluntary administration last week, leaving creditors at least £200,000 out of pocket. But a phoenix company has already risen from the ashes.
Two former Genisys Limited directors Philip Beesley and Scott Newcombe, have bought the intellectual property of the company for an undisclosed sum and are now operating as Asertas Limited trading as Genisys.
Financial and business adviser firm Hurst Morrison Thompson, was appointed as administrator for Genisys Limited last week. The firm was an IBM Business Partner, a Hewlett-Packard Preferred Partner, a 3Com Gold Partner, and a registered Cisco partner.
Speaking to CRN, Beesley said: “Last year Genisys Limited incurred bad debts totalling £200,000 and although it has traded for over 10 years, and last year made the same level of profit, it was difficult to continue. We tried to expand the business over the past couple of years, but it didn’t work out. We didn’t want to go down this route [voluntary administration] and did try for a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), but we were forced into administration.
“We now want to take the new company in a different direction focusing heavily on networking infrastructure, IP telephony, audiovisual and security services.” he said.
Beesley added that 90 per cent of existing staff have been kept on and the firm has temporarily moved to new rented premises.
“All customer warranties and returns will be honoured and we are retaining all our vendor accreditations,” he said. Beesley declined to discuss who the creditors of the firm were.
However, Nitin Joshi, client partner at Vantis, who is representing a large group of Genisys Limited’s creditors, said: “There was a half-baked discussion between the company and many of my clients to promote a CVA. The business case for this seemed unsupported and administration seemed inevitable.
“Post mortem will need to look at the model, the cost base, strategy, markets, margin and director conduct. There are legacy issues and any new business emerging from the ashes will have to address them.”