Futurama was part of the acquisitive PFI Group, having been acquired as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in April 2020. It supplied signage and interiors for blue chip clients including banks and retailers.

The firm was shuttered shortly after it emerged that PFI had made a £4.2m writedown related to the Futurama business.

Administrators David Acland and Anthony Collier of FRP Advisory were appointed on 5 May.

In the administrators’ report, FRP said that Futurama traded profitably and generated cash during the Covid lockdown periods.

However, in 2022 the company experienced a number of issues “which resulted in a significant cashflow reduction”.

“The issues included the installation of many incomplete products which required snagging/corrections, causing delays in securing payments from customers and in some cases, resulted in the company incurring losses on many installations, both in the UK and overseas,” the administrators stated.

“Additionally, customer deposits collected were not ring-fenced causing wider issues with customers and suppliers alike.”

A significant cash injection of £3m would have been required to restore working capital, and an attempted refinance in early 2023 proved unsuccessful.

By April two trade suppliers – owed £165,000 and £97,000 – had issued winding up petitions.

Invoice discounting provider Barclays, which holds a fixed and floating charge and was owed nearly £1.3m, appointed FRP Advisory “following an invitation to appoint from the directors of the company”.

Chattel assets at Futurama’s Bradford site, including office furniture, warehouse equipment and racking, and stock were sold to parent Rymack Sign Solutions for £40,000 plus VAT, with £10,000 paid upon completion and then six monthly payments of £5,000 plus VAT.

According to the FRP report, draft 2021 accounts for Futurama showed a substantial bounceback in sales to just under £17m, but the business slumped to a near-£4m net loss (2020 sales: £9.5m, net profit: £595,000).

Admin expenses increased from 29% of sales, to 42%, and exceeded gross profit. 

Futurama directors Darren McMurray (PFI Group CEO) and Stephen Bramhall (PFI Group COO) are yet to submit a Statement of Affairs, but the estimated outcome statement prepared by the administrators shows that Futurama’s trade and expense creditors are owed £4.66m, while the estimated total deficiency is £6.26m.

The contracts of former Futurama directors Marc Edwards (CEO), finance director Jo Evans, group operations director David Hurley, and director David Sharp were terminated in February.

Six other PFI Group companies are owed a total of nearly £1.25m by Futurama, with Works Manchester (£475,211), Signmaster (£463,341) and Cestrian (£269,301) the biggest connected creditors.

More than a dozen other suppliers – including a number on the continent – are owed hefty five- and six-figure sums.

HMRC is owed a total of £597,315 while the Redundancy Payments Office and employees are owed more than £400,000.

PFI Group has agreed to assist the administrators with debtor collection and the completion of outstanding contracts.

Separately, discussions are understood to be ongoing between Grafenia and PFI Group regarding the missed, adjusted deferred payment of £514,223 that was due at the end of May in relation to PFI’s purchase of Works Manchester.

Rymack Sign Solutions, trading as PFI Group, had sales of £31.9m and an operating profit of nearly £2.5m for the period from 1 January 2021 to 30 December 2021.

Exceptional items of £4.2m propelled the business to a bottom-line loss of £1.96m, compared to a profit of £1.43m in the prior period.