Hampshire Plant Hire in administration

Hampshire Plant Hire (HPH) is in administration. It had offices in Winchester, Southampton,  Salisbury and Portsmouth.

The size of its debts has not yet been calculated.

Joint administrators John Twizell and Stephen Goderski who work from the London office of Geoffrey Martin, specialists in insolvencies, were appointed on 22 October.

The call for their appointment came from State Security, one of HPH’s secured creditors, on the grounds that it was owed money and did not feel that HPH was able to honour the terms of the loan agreement.

A letter to all known creditors went out yesterday.

The administrator is aiming to sell the business as a going concern and has had numerous enquiries.

The company had claimed to be “the south’s premier plant and access company” with “back-up, service and delivery second-to-none”. In addition to a large modern fleet, it told customers that it was constantly updating equipment.

The parent company, Hampshire Plant Hire Holdings, is unscathed.

It moved its registered office from that of Hampshire Plant Hire on 6 October and can now be located at 25 St Thomas Street, Winchester.

HPH Holdings was first registered by solicitor Arfan Sarwar in February 2007, its name at that time being SHOO 317.

The most up-to-date financial information on HPH, covering the 12 months to 30 June 2007, was signed off on 2 February 2008.

Pre-tax profit of £380,000 was up from the previous figure of £280,000.

Interest charges had climbed by 33% to £440,000 while net debt had mounted from a previous figure of £4.0m to £6.7m.

While net cash inflow was put at £6.3m there had been £5.3m spend on capital expenditure, well ahead of the previous figure of £820,000.

HPH had 50 employees.

HPH director DS Gellender also has a major shareholding in HPH Holdings, the parent company.

HPH fellow director David Meadham, who lives in Winchester, resigned his position in May 2007 and has subsequently taken on two new directorships. They are:

• Hampshire Plant & Access – a company founded on 9 October 2008
• Meadham Plant Company – a company founded on 17 July 2008

A spokesman for the administrator declined to say if either of Meadham’s new companies were to be found on the list of enquiries to buy HPH.

Meadham has 15 current directorships and 12 previous directorships.

Of this total of 27, three are in liquidation: Leonard Field Group, Martlets Machinery and United Plant Sales.