Space Decks has been bought out of administration

Space Decks has been bought out of administration by Artguide, a new investment vehicle. The move leaves the glass-cladding specialist's unsecured creditors in the lurch.

Simon Wheatley, previously sales director, has been appointed to the post of managing director. The company has been re-branded as Space Decks Systems and will operate out of the same Somerset office as before.

Previous managing director Roger Howick has gone, although he will be used as a consultant by the new owners. One fellow director, Malcolm Green, has retired.

Bill Booth, chairman of Artguide, said: "All of the group's 50 workers are still employed bar these two directors."

Debts have been left behind. Asked how much money unsecured creditors had lost, Booth said: "I don't know." They will need to look to administrator PWC for their money, he explained.

The group had not filed any annual results since the year ending 30 June 2005. At that time, turnover of £12m left a pre-tax profit of just £18,000, well down from the £910,000 figure enjoyed in the previous year.

Asked why Space Decks can now be seen as being safe to work for, Booth explained that the group's finances went adrift as a result of poor management on site.

(Contract Journal, 8 August 2007, p 2)