Majestic joins list of failed distributors

Sutton Coldfield-based distributor Majestic Distribution has ceased trading pending a meeting of creditors.

Sutton Coldfield-based distributor Majestic Distribution has ceased trading pending a meeting of creditors.

Majestic is the latest distributor to fall victim to a slump in trade following on from Datrontech and VLSI. Creditors are currently waiting for last year's figures to be filed.

According to sources, the company last filed accounts in 1999, reporting a profit of £212,000 on turnover of £26.6m. Ron Speight, a partner at Birmingham-based accountants Moore Stephens Booth & White, confirmed that a creditors' meeting has been arranged for 26 January.

Speight also confirmed that all staff at the firm have been made redundant.

Nitin Joshi, director at accountant Pannell Kerr Forster, told Computer Reseller News that he will be attending the meeting to represent a number of creditors. "We hope to find out from directors [of Majestic] exactly what happened and also what dividend is to be proposed for creditors," he said.

Eddie Pacey, credit controller at distributor Ideal Hardware, said the wafer thin margins some distributors operate under made vendors suspicious of dealing with them. "The industry will continue to view [distributors] with a kind of scepticism in terms of longevity," he said.