The historic Ipswich printing company – named after the 15th century ‘ancient house’ in the town where it began life as a book and stationery shop – would have been celebrating 180 years in business had things turned out differently under the stewardship of RD Capital Partners (RDCP).
Instead, the firm’s Whittle Road factory is shuttered and RDCP’s talk of being an owner that was there for the long-haul has evaporated like so much hot air.
Enter RDCP
In May 2021 acquisitive RDCP made its first appearance in the printing industry.
Helmed by husband and wife team Sameer Rizvi and Iryna Dubylovska their initial ambitions seemed positive enough despite a lack of industry expertise.
The sale must also have come as something of a relief for Ancient House’s former owners. The web and sheetfed printer had been family-owned for 50 years, with siblings Michael Underdown and Allison Berry deciding to sell up post-pandemic.
RDCP acquired 95% of the shares in Ancient House, with an option to buy the property, owned by Berry and Underdown, at a later date.
Initially things seemed to be going well enough. Ancient House was back in the black and sales were up 25% at £12.9m for the year ending 28 February 2022.
Come 2023 sales were up again, by nearly 27%, at £16.32m. Operating margins also nudged up, to 5.78%.
RDCP seemed to be doing nicely from its purchase, too.
In the February 2022 accounts for Ancient House Press the firm was billed for £100,000 in management charges by RDCP Investments 6 and was owed £4.25m by the same company at that date.
It was also owed £620,555 by RDCP Group.
Come the February 2023 accounts – the last to be filed before liquidators were appointed – the management charges had increased to £340,000, and Ancient House was owed nearly £5.2m by RDCP entities.
Rizvi and Dubylovska had also personally guaranteed a loan to the company of £240,143 (at an interest rate of 11.15%).
Best intentions
Underdown and Berry said they had avoided a trade sale due to fears of asset stripping.
Explaining the rationale for the sale in 2021, Underdown said: “There are members of staff who have given their lives to the business, and neither of us felt we could leave them high and dry.”
Berry also said it was “vitally important” for the business to remain in Ipswich, for staff to remain employed, and for clients to be serviced to the standard they’d come to expect.
However, alarm bells began to ring early in February 2024, after some curious Companies House activity that included late filings regarding RDCP directorship changes, and a swathe of company name changes.
Also in February last year, finance firm Theodore Management filed winding up petitions against three RDCP companies: SDD Engineering Holdings (formerly RDCP Investments 13), DCS Wholesale Group Holdings (formerly RDCP Investments 20), and IAHP Group Holdings (formerly RDCP Group, and previously the holding company of Ancient House).
By Q3-Q4 Ancient House Press faced a cash crunch and was unable to pay key suppliers, which doesn’t quite square with Rizvi’s earlier reassurances, as quoted on the print firm’s blog: “The reason our model works is we give a lot of autonomy to each CEO, and this means that we do not get involved in operations, but we are always there when they need strategic support,” he affirmed.
“For example, AHP is a standalone business, and it hasn’t required any support from RDCP, but if and when it does, there’s a balance sheet here and access to wider resources. We always support the businesses we own because we are here for the long term.”
It’s not clear why that support failed to materialise, and whether Ancient House fell victim to problems elsewhere in the RDCP empire, as it disposed of loss-making operations.
Despite the siblings’ good intentions, Ancient House’s 60-plus employees ended up being left in the lurch prior to Christmas. Rizvi’s assurances that the business would reopen in early January after a restructure proved incorrect, and the shutters stayed down. A decline in sales was blamed for the failure.
Former employees are understandably unhappy, as are trade creditors who are owed a whopping £2.5m of the initial estimated total shortfall of nearly £4.7m.
Underdown and Berry are also among the long list of people out of pocket, owed £220,000 apiece, according to the Statement of Affairs.
Rizvi responds
In response to further questions from Printweek about what went wrong, Rizvi stated: “As shareholders, RDCP made every effort to ensure the business had a viable path forward. Leading up to Christmas, we explored restructuring as an option.
“However, over the holiday period, several key clients moved their work elsewhere, significantly impacting the company’s revenue base. By early January, the senior management team informed both RDCP and the administrators that there was no sustainable business left to take forward.”
He said the group remained on the M&A trail and was looking at £100m worth of new acquisitions this year.
Will any of them be in print?
“The print industry is facing many challenges and is a sector that RDCP will not be investing further in.”
