Creditors of Duncan Adams unlikely to be repaid in full, says Deloitte

Creditors owed money by Grangemouth haulier Duncan Adams, which entered administration in March, are unlikely to receive anything due to insufficient funds.

A progress report from Deloitte said that as of the end of August, book debt collections of £1,952,000 had been received, which meant that the company’s secured creditor had been repaid in full.

However, the administrator anticipates that it is unlikely preferential and unsecured creditors will be repaid in full, although a small dividend to preferential creditors may become payable.

A previous report said there were around 178 unsecured creditors with estimated claims of £3,805,000.

Explaining why the company was being wound down, the report said: “It was not possible to trade the business as the company had no funding available to allow ongoing trading.

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“Furthermore, the road haulage operator’s licence required to continue legally operating haulage vehicles on public roads had to be surrendered as a consequence of the administration.”

It added: “It should be noted that the director had already explored potential business sale opportunities prior to administration, which did not result in any serious expressions of interest and accordingly the merits of trading, were it possible, in order to achieve a sale of the business were diminished.”

Duncan Adams was established in 1960 and it was considered to be one of the largest privately owned haulage companies in Scotland.

It had a base at Tyne Dock and an operating centre in Perth and undertook general and international haulage, as well as container storage.

It had combined O-licences authorising up to 127 vehicles and 262 trailers across multiple sites.

The Deloitte report also said Duncan Adams “has a potential compensation claim in connection with trucks purchased from manufacturers who have been fined by the European Commission for operating as a cartel".

It said: “We discussed a sale of the rights to this claim with three parties. However, we have not received any offers for the claim.

“The matter is ongoing.”

The Unite union told Motor Transport it was still pursuing protective award claims on behalf of 50 former employees of Duncan Adams, because it believed the company had failed to collectively inform and consult them about their redundancies.