Evesham enters administration

Troubled system builder folds after 24 years

Written by Laura Hailstone

CRN, 06 Aug 2007

Evesham Technology has today confirmed it entered administration on 3 August.

CRN has learnt that business rescue and recovery firm, Leonard Curtis, has been appointed as administrator and around 50 per cent of Evesham staff have lost their jobs.

As reported by CRN, the struggling system builder announced on Friday that it had been given a $22m lifeline from former Time and Tiny founder Tahir Mohsan and would plough forward, focusing on direct sales of high-end PC systems and consumer electronics (CRN Online, 3 August).

In a statement issued this afternoon, Evesham chairman, Richard Austin, confirmed the firm had entered administration and said: “It’s no secret that Evesham Technology has been going through some financial difficulties having not been able to replace lost revenue of £30m which was wiped off of the company’s turnover following the decision made by the government to axe the Home Computing Initiative (HCI) at short notice.

"We had heavily invested and allocated many resources to the HCI scheme and as a result around 150 loyal and hardworking Evesham staff have also unavoidably lost their jobs. Many of the staff had worked for Evesham Technology for a number of years so it is a sad loss to the Evesham Technology family, and to me personally. I have built this company from nothing over a 24 year period and only wish we could have avoided this situation.”

He continued: “The Evesham Technology brand has received an investment of $22m from a well known investor in the industry, Tahir Mohsan of PCC Technology, who recognized the potential of the Evesham brand and the popularity of its products. The company, now known as GeeMore Technology, will continue trading as Evesham Technology. As it stands 138 people are still employed here at Evesham.”

“Although we are all very sad that we have to continue trading without valuable, long standing Evesham staff, we will continue to trade in the UK as one the UK’s leading PC and Consumer Electronics manufacturers and uphold our enviable reputation for service and support. We hope that we have now passed this unfortunate time in our company’s history and can look to a positive future.”

“We would like to reassure all of our customers that they will continue to receive support from Evesham and that their existing warranties will continue to be handled with Evesham’s award winning service, as before.”