Bad debts force Millbank to bow out of channel

Millbank Computers, one of the channel's longest-running distributors, collapsed into liquidation last week after failing to recover from a series of bad debts.

Millbank Computers, one of the channel's longest-running distributors, collapsed into liquidation last week after failing to recover from a series of bad debts.

A resolution was signed by Millbank's shareholders last Friday to appoint Pannell Kerr Forster (PKF) as liquidators. A creditors' meeting will be held on 22 March.

Nitin Joshi, director at PKF, said the main reasons for Millbank's failure were a combination of bad debt and heavy litigation. "It is very sad that Millbank has gone down after such a long time in business," he said.

Joshi said PKF was talking to a number of interested parties with a view to selling the company, citing Millbank's customer base as a particular area of interest. He said that negotiations with vendors about continuing trading with the company were ongoing.

Established in Epsom, Surrey as a general computer distributor in 1978, Millbank started to seriously focus on the electronic point of sale (EPoS) market in 1998.

The Millbank EPoS Warehouse division was created to target the convenience store market, and the company recruited Danny Hamilton from rival distributor PC-PoS to head the division. Turnover in 1998 was just over £2m.

In 1999, however, the company's fortunes began to decline. It became involved in a legal battle over the movement of Hamilton and other staff from PC-PoS, and although Millbank resisted an injunction, the process proved to be costly. The company's bad debt situation also worsened.

Tim Mott, managing director of Millbank, was out of the country and unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.