Bury St Edmunds bathroom store in liquidation owing nearly £140k

A Bury St Edmunds bathroom business has gone into liquidation, leaving the government on the hook for a £50,000 pandemic loan.

Concept Bathrooms, which has a registered trading address at 7 Chamberlayne Road in the town, appointed liquidators from Wilson Field on May 20.

According to documents filed with Companies House, when the company went into liquidation it owed £139,574.21.

The largest creditor is Barclays Bank which provided the company with a £50,000 coronavirus bounce back loan in June 2020 — the maximum amount available under the scheme.

Under the scheme, the government guaranteed 100% of the loan to give businesses more flexibility to borrow money mid-pandemic.  

Other significant creditors include Lloyds bank which is owed £14,992.78, the redundancy payment service which is owed £13,334.80 and a Norwich-based property development firm called Dencora 2000 which is owed £14,699.04.

A spokesman for the Sheffield-based liquidators said: “Concept Bathrooms Ltd entered liquidation due to a lack of income that would allow them to repay loans obtained in 2018/19. Coronavirus-related lockdowns also had a detrimental impact.

"The company employed three staff members, including the director; all three have lost their jobs. At this point, the company’s creditors will not receive a dividend.”