A Bridge too far

SOMETHING 'IRREGULAR' has happened at Bridge Business Recovery - that much is abundantly clear from its administrators' statement.

The seven-partner firm (eight before co-founder James Bradney recently left) was ticking along quite nicely before the roof caved in.

As I'm not planning on getting sued, it's therefore difficult to run through all the various rumours and hearsay around its collapse into administration.

But some issues can be aired.

Why did the courts reportedly decide that a pre-pack was not appropriate for Bridge? It certainly fitted the classic criteria for a pre-pack: A people business where any value would disappear if allowed to drag on through insolvency; insolvency professionals from KPMG reportedly backed the plan; as did the major creditor -believed to be HMRC. Answers on a postcard please.

As for the running of Bridge, there's not much detail that we can go into. Suffice to say, its controls and corporate governance must be called into question.

Whether a business' problems are cultural and endemic or very narrowly-focused, it seems that in the case of Bridge the seasoned business advisors were too busy helping others to kick their own tyres.

And that's a great shame for an exciting business - and a salutary warning to other new and fast-growing firms.