Jason Baker and Geoff Rowley, partners at specialist restructuring, recovery and insolvency firm, FRP Advisory are appointed as joint administrators to Hiremee, which continues to trade. Six of the 20 members of staff have been made redundant.
Hiremee was established in the 1970s and is based at three depots in Royston, Bishops Stortford and Ware in Hertfordshire. It started life with a collection of second-hand equipment in a small shop in the village of Stanstead Abbotts near Ware in Hertfordshire. It now mostly hires equipment to local businesses in Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex.
Its Bishops Stortford depot had only opened in February this year.
A downturn in the construction industry has led to fewer businesses needing to hire equipment from Hiremee – so, despite an excellent reputation amongst its customer base, this has led to cash flow difficulties,” said Baker. “The decline in liquidity also made it harder for Hiremee to pay back the large amount of debt it had taken on to fund growth."
Hiremee will continue to trade, while its business, goodwill and assets are for sale. According to the company’s website, the last instruction from its founder Chris Brodie was to ‘never let quality or service slip’ “That was the last instruction from Chris Brodie our founder. This is still our philosophy.”
“Having investigated all options with Hiremee's director, it was concluded that entering administration would be the best route to safeguarding the value of the business,” said Baker. “We are now trading Hiremee as a going concern, with a view to identifying potential buyers for its business and assets and securing a sale as quickly as possible."
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