Following a recent announcement of its financial troubles, Universal Engineering appointed Milsted Langdon’s Simon Rowe and Rachel Hotham as administrators.

Having fought off competition from PWC and international restructuring firm Alix Partners, Milsted Langdon is currently exploring options to keep parts of the company going and secure jobs for the members of staff that have been retained.

Different departments have been working together to gain the best return for creditors and they have successfully demonstrated their breadth of expertise in a number of ways.

On the day of its appointment, the firm mobilised the insolvency team to deal with the 120+ staff, as well as utilising the expertise of the corporate finance team to handle the sale of a solvent subsidiary. The corporate finance team has recently handled the sales of Bristol Management Centre to IMD Bristol Limited, Sedgemoor Drinks Limited to Newton Abbot’s Tolchards Limited, and Discovery Records Limited to Trapeze Music Limited.

To assist Universal Engineering further, Milsted Langdon Financial Services provided auto-enrolment advice to the subsidiary, whilst the business intelligence team reviewed Universal Engineering’s accounting systems.

The dedicated team has undertaken a large number of projects for clients to improve the quality of their management information. As such they can draw upon practical industry-based experience, information technology skills and detailed knowledge of popular software packages to deliver services and solutions for business owner-managers.

Meanwhile, Milsted Langdon’s IT Consultancy company handled the computer systems, whilst the payroll team have been dealing with the payroll while trade continues, and Tax Partner and VAT specialist Stephen Griffiths has recovered £300,000 for the benefit of the estate. Stephen has extensive experience in dealing with personal and business tax compliance, as well as indirect taxes, and he plays a key role within Milsted Langdon’s specialist VAT Consultancy service.