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Administration · 27 November 2020

Coombs (Canterbury)

Housebuilder · Canterbury · South East England

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What happened

COOMBS (CANTERBURY) LIMITED (company number 02040829), incorporated in 1986, entered administration on 27 November 2020. Its status at Companies House is now: liquidation.

Why it failed

From 2017 it struggled for workload and sustainable margins in a competitive market; losses began in August 2019, Covid cut activity and two investors declined to fund it.

  • Main reason: Market downturn
  • Sale or investment failed
  • Covid-19
  • Cash flow
  • Clients not paying or failing

Our summary of the reasons given in the administrators' proposals. These record the administrators' and directors' account of what happened.

An administrator, a licensed insolvency practitioner, takes control of the company to try to rescue it, sell the business or get a better result for creditors than a liquidation.

Previously known as: COOMBS OF CANTERBURY LIMITED.

Timeline

The last accounts and payment report before the failure, then what happened, with the time between each.

  1. 31 July 2018

    Last accounts filed were made up to this date

    2 years later

  2. 27 November 2020

    Administration started

    6 months later

  3. 24 May 2021

    Administration ended

  4. 24 May 2021

    Creditors' voluntary liquidation started (shareholders resolved to wind up)

AccountsPayment reportInsolvency

Before it failed

Key figures

Turnover in its last accounts, year to Jul 2018
£16.1m
Accounts at Companies House
Profit before tax, year to Jul 2018
£89k
Accounts at Companies House
Staff, year to Jul 2018
66
Accounts at Companies House
Net assets, year to Jul 2018
£1.4m
Accounts at Companies House
Owed to unsecured creditors (estimated), as at 27 November 2020
£3.6m
of which trade creditors £489k. HMRC owed £372k. Expected return to unsecured creditors: about 23p to 27p in the pound
Administrators' proposals

The last accounts filed were full accounts made up to 31 July 2018, 28 months before it went into administration. Private companies have nine months after their year end to file, so a gap of more than 21 months usually means the next accounts were overdue, one of the warning signs worth checking for.

The full filing history, including any late filings, charges and director changes, is on Companies House.

Lessons learned report

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In the news

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