Benson's crash did not need to happen

Benson's crash into administration, leaving unsecured creditors owed £23m, could have been avoided, according to its former chief executive Alistair Sloan.
"All it needed was a £1.2m overdraft for three months. Given Benson's size, we're talking about a sum equal to just two days turnover," Sloan said.
Sloan is fuming at the way he was treated in the final months. He was on holiday last October when accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) accepted an invitation to undertake a working capital review.
"I was furious. We didn't need it. We did weekly cashflow forecasts and monitored the situation daily," he said. "On 4 October, I'd put two proposals to the board that would have offered a way of trading through.
"Benson Midlands would have been closed in a controlled way and everyone would have been paid. The board said 'no' without offering a valid reason for that decision.
"At a main board meeting on 20 October I proposed the same options and the non-executives said 'no'. My alternative proposal was to bring in a corporate finance team. But on 25 October, when I was on holiday, PwC was appointed. How can it accept such a brief when the chief executive is away? I broke off the holiday and came home. Within a week I was told that my contract had been terminated.
"Once I'd gone, Tony Rieger, a non-executive who had only been there three months was running the business. I was out on 15 November and on 29 November the main board voted to withdraw support for Benson Midlands following a recommendation from PwC," he added.
"I spent four hours on the phone trying to persuade the board not to do it. They wouldn't listen and what followed was exactly the mayhem I had warned them of: in London the subcontractors to the Benson Interiors business demanded immediate payment.
"On 30 November, Paul Sellars was appointed chief executive - that was the day Benson Midlands went into receivership. He came in on PwC's recommendation and the following week he worked up a plan to buy the Reigate, Hatfield and Southampton offices."
John Morgan, chairman of Morgan Sindall, phoned Sloan on 10 December, after hearing about the problems at Benson Midlands. "I introduced the Morgan Sindall board to the guys running the three profitable regions still making a total profit of £2.2m a year. Over the weekend, due diligence was completed. A £3m bid was put in, which scuttled Sellar's plan," said Sloan.
Sloan was so convinced that the Benson Group could have survived that he worked up a business plan with KPMG to buy the business himself. "But the board refused to talk to me," he said.

Benson's top 10 creditors
Mitie Engineering Services £1,095,279.11?Trilectric £582,512.52?Premium Credit £474,863.86?Rtt £429,937.60?Michael Lonsdale £426,044.24?Envirotech Services £350,627.36?Tenline Interior Contracts £343,860.96?Intersign Partitions £266,671.78?Crittall Windows £249,855.94?Rage Interiors £243,072.66