The firm’s leased machinery, including a Heidelberg Speedmaster 102, and 38 of SMS Howards Labels’ 78 staff transferred to a company operating in the same road called SMS Howard, and fronted by directors Martin Brown and Myles Bunyard.
An employee said: “We were told we wouldn’t be paid redundancies and to claim from the DTI. The DTI refused, saying the company wasn’t in administration. We’re in a no man’s land.”
Bunyard, who became a director of Kent-based printer Multiplex Techniques in August last year, said he became involved with the struggling SMS in March, but by early May the company was trading profitably.
“It was unfortunate that Barclays withdrew support then, but we sold them the idea of an orderly winding down. We believe that we are doing the honourable thing and maximising money for creditors,” he said.
SMS Howards Labels started trading in 2000 after Brown used it to buy the assets of the former SMS companies out of administration, leaving over £1m of unsecured creditors.
Employees can claim their statutory redundancy when the company finally goes into voluntary liquidation.
Story by John Davies
