Duffy confirmed to Comms Business Magazine earlier today, "The remainder of the East Central staff are still here (Monday) and we are just waiting around tying up a few ends and seeing what materialises over the next few days, but East Central is no longer trading."
We are awaiting an official statement confirming this position from either the Administrator or Receiver.
East Central entered administration on 26 September 2005 with the purpose to either rescue the company as a going concern or to achieve a better result for the company's creditors as a whole than would be likely if the company were wound up without first being in Administration. At that point 30 staff, including MD Rob Kay, were made redundant.
At its peak East Central was believed to have a turnover of around £100 million and employed approximately 70 staff. In recent years the company has had a very low profile compared to the late 1990’s when then Managing Director David Milne created a lot of attention in the market.
The original company, East Central (Business Machines) Limited, was founded nearly 30 years ago. In November 1999 it was bought outright by a buy-in management buy-out (“BIMBO”) team. This was followed by a secondary management buy-out in December 2002 through ECG. The existing management team own 100 per cent. of ECG, which in turn owns 100 per cent. of the shares of ECD Limited, the sole trading company of the Group.