Sovereign Business Integration appoints voluntary liquidator

Cisco, Microsoft, Dell and VMware partner saw turnover drop from £7.4m to £4m, partly due to the pandemic

A London-based IT solutions provider serving the housing sector has gone out of business after the pandemic took its toll on sales.

Sovereign Business Integration Group PLC appointed a liquidator on 18 November, according to documents filed on Companies House at the start of this month.

Having turned over £7.4m in its fiscal 2019, the Barnet-based outfit saw revenues tumble 46 per cent to £4m in 2020 - a shortfall it blamed partly on the pandemic.

Although actions taken to reduce its cost base enabled it to virtually halve pre-tax losses to £798,000 during the period, Sovereign stressed at the time that it was "actively seeking ways to further reduce costs in the face of the uncertainty in the market and the reluctance of companies to commit to capital investment decisions".

According to a statement of affairs, Sovereign went under owing HMRC £1.67m, with Sophos, Mimecast and Softcat listed among its other creditors.

Sovereign's client base was "heavily weighted" to the housing sector, but the Cisco, Microsoft, Dell and VMware partner had been attempting to prospect for new business in the logistics and border control markets.

According to documents filed on Companies House, the company appointed a voluntary liquidation on 18 November. The company "cannot, by reason of its liabilities, continue its business", a winding-up notice issued on the same date read.

Despite the economic downturn and rising energy costs, the channel has survived 2022 without any major bankruptcies (putting aside the recent collapse of private cloud outfit UKCloud).

The number of business insolvencies in England and Wales hit a 13-year high in Q2, however.

The insolvency practitioner appointed to oversee the liquidation has not responded to our requests for comment.