Metro Design Consultants went under owing £1.2m

Fit-out firm Metro Design Consultants, formerly led by entrepreneur Daniel Taylor, went into administration in April 2011 owing £1.2m, an administrator’s report has revealed.

The report on the firm, by administrator Frost Business Recovery, said it had been bought for £35,000 by Accounting Training in May. Metro Design Consultants’ name was changed to MDC Realisations; then Accounting Training was changed to Metro Design Consultants on 4 May 2011.

The firm turned over £12.6m and made profits of £212,923 in 2009 before hitting cashflow problems in February 2011 after the loss of a major client, delays in payment and problems on a project.

The firm owes its creditors about £1.2m, including £1m to trade and expense creditors.

Jeremy Frost, managing director of Frost Group, said the next stage was to finish the investigations and liquidate or strike off money owed to MDC the firm.

Creditors have raised questions about the price at which the firm was sold. But Frost said much of the value lay in the directors’ contacts and work in-hand, which clients might not be willing to transfer to a different company. “If I thought I could have got half as much [as the £387,000 suggested by one creditor] I would have done it,” he said.