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Struggling Hove venue relaunched after liquidation (From The Argus)
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Struggling Hove venue relaunched after liquidation
4:00pm Thursday 21st January 2010
A cash-strapped arts venue has been forced into liquidation – but has been immediately relaunched as a new company.
The management of the Old Market, in Upper Market Street, Hove, confirmed yesterday that the charitable Old Market Trust, which has run it since its creation in 1999, had been wound up because of non-payment of tax debts of £240,000.
At the same time they announced the venue would continue to operate, with all scheduled shows still taking place.
It will be run by the existing management, who have formed a new company and will lease the building from Barclays bank, which has taken ownership as part of the liquidation.
Trust chairman Stephen Neiman said the company had a long-term hope of buying back the venue.
The winding-up means that around 40 local suppliers and other bodies owed money by the trust will be paid only a small proportion of their debts.
Mr Neiman said: "I am bitterly disappointed that there are a number of people that will suffer financially, and we apologise to all those that will lose money.
“If there was any other way of moving forward then we would have taken it.
"However, I am delighted that the staff and the management team here wish to continue operating the building and that all deposits for bookings will be honoured by the new company."
The closure follows months of warnings from the trustees that the venue was in danger of going bust and a desperate last-ditch attempt to save it by developing two glass penthouses on the roof of the Grade II listed building.
The trust said it made money on a day-to-day basis but had struggled to deal with historic debts built up during restoration of the venue in the 1990s.
Charity Commission statistics show its expenditure in the past five years has been around £1million more than its income.
The closure was finally forced when Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs pursued a winding-up order to reclaim overdue taxes.
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Your Say YourArgus
mark by the sea, hove says...
5:12pm Thu 21 Jan 10
kayotic wrote:surely the this is a council owned property? seems the fact some hard working people might lose there homes over this not something the council takes into consideration? the ltd company act needs changing so the directors are held accountable, when clearly they had been insolvent for some time!
I feel sorry for the traders and suppliers who are going to lose most of their money. I hope the same traders don't fall into the trap of supplying them again. How can the person who run the place into the ground re-invent himself and continue running the business.
Christophe Hawtree, Hove says...
6:57pm Thu 21 Jan 10
Arriseme, Brighton says...
7:42pm Thu 21 Jan 10
andyelevator, Littlehampton says...
9:31pm Thu 21 Jan 10
I am sure those suppliers will be using their perogative to decide who they will do business with in the future as is their right.
caeos, sussex says...
10:00pm Thu 21 Jan 10
how log do we give them this time before they need bailing out again?
Music Lover, brighton says...
8:22am Fri 22 Jan 10
How can a company such as this simply be allowed to obviously trade whilst insolvent and simply wipe off £240,000 TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY THOUSAND POUNDS!!! to the Taxman and local suppliers with no accountability??
It makes me wonder why companies struggle through periods of economic recession to pay their bills when their income is down - Why not simply amass a load of debt and go bust?? You can then continue to trade like nothing has happened - just what Sassco and Komedia did last year and wrote off their huge debts to the taxman and local suppliers.
Good luck to all the businesses in town with some honour to its suppliers
Gordonmuppet, Crawley says...
11:34am Fri 22 Jan 10
WS, London says...
11:40am Fri 22 Jan 10
Music Lover wrote:Running up debt to deliberately go bust is a longstanding unscrupulous business tactic. There's little practically that can be done to stop it.
This is an absolute disgrace. How can a company such as this simply be allowed to obviously trade whilst insolvent and simply wipe off £240,000 TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY THOUSAND POUNDS!!! to the Taxman and local suppliers with no accountability?? It makes me wonder why companies struggle through periods of economic recession to pay their bills when their income is down - Why not simply amass a load of debt and go bust?? You can then continue to trade like nothing has happened - just what Sassco and Komedia did last year and wrote off their huge debts to the taxman and local suppliers. Good luck to all the businesses in town with some honour to its suppliers
scaffolder, brighton says...
11:50am Fri 22 Jan 10
stan bailey, brighton says...
7:35pm Fri 22 Jan 10
pwlr, Hove says...
6:57pm Sun 24 Jan 10
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kayotic, hove says...
4:27pm Thu 21 Jan 10
How can the person who run the place into the ground re-invent himself and continue running the business.