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A car maintenance business in Scunthorpe has gone into administration and a buyer is being sought to take on the business as a going concern.

The In 'n' Out facility in Doncaster Road shut its doors after its Northamptonshire-based owner In 'n' Out Services Limited went into administration last Thursday. Six people have lost their jobs.

The firm has also also closed its branch in Derby, which joined the Scunthorpe outlet as its two biggest loss-makers. The other 12 In 'n' Out operations around the country are still trading.

Simon Thomas and Fred Satow, of London-based Moorfields Corporate Recovery, were appointed as joint administrators of the business and are now searching for a buyer.

Mr Thomas said, "In 'n' Out Services Limited is an award-winning provider of car maintenance and MOT testing services with modern and well-integrated workshops based around the UK.

"We have already received a number of expressions of interest from likely buyers and are hopeful of achieving a swift going concern sale. Please could interested parties contact us as soon as possible. While we have regrettably had to make a number of redundancies on our appointment, we are hopeful of achieving a going concern sale and preserving the remaining jobs.

"It is possible any purchaser of the business may wish to re-employ the staff we have had to release in the short-term,” he added.

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Retirement plans for millions of small business owners could be ruined following news that the government has proposed capping pension contributions in the year they retire.

If the proposals go ahead, annual contributions will be capped at between £30,000 and £45,000 a year, as opposed to the current £255,000. However, plans to restrict tax relief for the very highest earners, suggested by the previous government, would also be scrapped.

A concession allowing unrestricted pension contributions in the year of retirement is also to be removed. This concession was aimed at helping entrepreneurs and small business owners whose wealth is often tied up in their business.

Small business campaigners accused the Government of making them pay the price of protecting millionaires' pensions.

Stephen Alambritis, spokesman for the Federation of Small Business, said,”[Small business owners] tend to plough money back into their businesses rather than contributing to their pension. For some, the choice might be making someone redundant or saving into a pension.

“They then try to make up for lost time at retirement. We would urge the Government not to make this change,” he added.

A financial adviser commented on how much harder it would make it for small business people to build a pension at the last minute. He added that the whole emphasis of the Government's changes seems to be towards building a pension gradually rather than making large, occasional lump sum contributions.

Many small business owners are only able to make occasional lump sum contributions towards their pensions as they trade one enterprise for another or when they retire and sell up.

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A new initiative has been launched to get banks and financial institutions lending to small businesses again.

As a result of organisations pointing out that finding finance for small firms was 'vital to reinvigorating the economy,' business secretary Vince Cable and chancellor George Osborne have launched the 'Financing a Private Sector Recovery' paper, in a bid to get lending moving and to encourage investment.

The paper explores a variety of finance options, including more use of equity and encouraging venture capital and business angels to invest in a wider range of businesses. It explains how the government itself could intervene and also aims to increase transparency in bank loan applications and to foster competition between banks and financial institutions. 

Mr Cable said, “I’ve heard the problems businesses are facing in getting bank loans up and down the country. They need innovative ways to access finance from other sources to grow our firms and economy.
That’s why this green paper is so important as we look to help viable firms get the money they need,” added Mr Cable.

Commenting on the paper, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, David Frost, said, “It is vital that the right approach is taken when dealing with the access to finance question.

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Small and medium-sized business in the UK is improving, according to new results published in The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s (CIM) Marketing Trends Survey 2010.

The annual report, which is conducted by research giant Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Institute, found that small and medium-sized businesses in the UK are the most optimistic about business growth over the coming year. More than half of respondents were convinced that their own business would improve over the next 12 months, with just eight per cent expecting there to be a decline in growth.

Larger businesses – those that have a turnover of £100 million plus – were far more negative, with a fifth of respondents predicting that the economic situation would worsen over the next year, impacting badly on their business.

Fourteen per cent of those working in marketing departments at small companies with a turnover of between £1-£10 million were concerned about losing their jobs, compared to 24 per cent at medium-sized companies (£11-£50 million turnover).

Small companies were found to be most likely to increase the number of marketing staff over the next year, with an overall increase of 15 per cent, compared to just three per cent for larger companies.

David Thorp, Director of Research and Professional Development at The Chartered Institute of Marketing, said, “As we come out of the downturn, it is reassuring to see that small business has fared these difficult economic times well, with growth projected for the next 12 months.”

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Project New Bank, which is being set up by City grandees Lord Levene and Sir David Walker, aims to put high street bank managers back at the heart of lending decisions.

Poised to launch soon, the bank will give local branches the power to make their own decisions on lending to small business and individual borrowers. By making decisions at a local level, it will be able to keep risks low, confining any failures rather than feeling the effects throughout the group.

Project New Bank plans to buy branches from Lloyds Banking Group – which has confirmed that the sale of 600 branches would go ahead by the deadline of November 2013 – and Northern Rock in order to build up its business.

These new plans, which push local decision-making as opposed to a more centralised method, are expected to appeal strongly to small businesses, who have complained that staff in many existing branches lack the necessary powers to lend money.

Project New Bank will still offer internet and telephone banking, with the initial vehicle expected to be valued at around £50 million.

As well as Lloyd's of London chairman Levene and former City regulator Walker, the bank has signed up Lord McFall – former head of the Treasury select committee and MP for Dunbartonshire West – and Charles McCreevy, Ireland's former European Commissioner, as directors.

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Following two years of steep falls, the number of new business registrations has begun to rise once more.

Recent research by Companies House has revealed that new company registrations rose by 10 per cent to 362,317 during the 12 months to March this year.

These figures, in such stark contrast to those recorded during 2007/08 and 2008/09 – when new registrations fell by 17 per cent and 11 per cent respectively – hint at a possible recovery in the private sector.

Roger Williams, partner at accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy, said, “Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs since the banking crisis started.

“But what we are now seeing is that many of those have dusted themselves down and are starting up their own business,” he added.

But, whilst these figures do hint at a more positive future, sometimes businesses are registered at Companies House solely to safeguard them for later use, so the newly registered ones may not be starting anytime soon.

PricewaterhouseCoopers also released figures this week showing that the number of business insolvencies has dropped this year compared to last.

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It is expected that today’s budget will boost small enterprise with the government pledging ‘help for business that doesn’t stifle investment.’

A plan to increase lending from banks to businesses is also expected, coupled with a five-year plan that will reform corporation tax.

George Osborne’s plans to increase bank lending to small and medium sized businesses was described last week by Vince Cable as a ‘key bottleneck’ in the current system.

The chancellor is said to have to have listened carefully to business chiefs and their concerns about scrapping investment allowances. This was being considered in an effort to finance other cuts in corporation tax.

Plans for cuts in rates of corporation tax and a commitment to reduce and simplify the tax system is expected to be widely discussed.

Efforts to enforce lending agreements made by the two part-nationalised banks, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland will also be revisited.

Ministers have also indicated their willingness to extend the enterprise finance guarantee, which offers state backing for bank loans to smaller companies, beyond its current March 2011 expiry date.

This is seen by many small and medium sized businesses as the key to the future prosperity of the sector.

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A five-star Scottish hotel frequented by the stars is up for sale following the collapse of its parent group.

The prestigious Glasshouse Hotel in Edinburgh – which has welcomed celebrities such as Kylie Minogue, Annie Lennox and Meryl Streep – is on the market after the Eton Collection Group collapsed.

The glitzy Edinburgh hotel, which opened in 2003, and four other hotels owned by the group are now looking for new owners. All have been put on the market after KPMG were appointed administrators. It is understood the hotel will trade while a buyer is sought.

The 69-bedroom hotel boasts Edinburgh’s only rooftop terrace and is situated beside the Playhouse Theatre. But despite its glamour and celebrity fans, the hotel made a loss of £154,583 last year.

Added to a reduction in business due to the recession, the development of a tram network outside the hotel has also been mooted as a business blocker.

A spokeswoman for KPMG said they were in the process of finding new owners for the hotel.
“No immediate redundancies have been made and the hotels are to continue trading while a buyer is sought.”

The Glasshouse was previously voted by Conde Nast Traveller as one of the top 50 hottest hotels in the world.

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A Newcastle business man has credited the guidance of a UK law firm in helping him to sell his small business, a mobile phone firm, for an impressive £3.6 million.

When Ian Gillespie, majority shareholder of Fone Logistics, sold his company recently it was with the assistance of Muckle LLP law firm – a company he first contacted when he was setting up his small business 15 years ago.

Fone Logistics supplies mobile handsets and airtime to more than 600 dealers, including 02, Vodafone and Orange. Their market mainly consists of small and medium-sized businesses. As part of the sale, a section of the business which relates to Network 3 was transferred to another of Ian Gillespie’s companies.

The sale of the shop has helped to ensure a record quarter for the legal eagles. They had also acted on 24 other transactions with an aggregate value in excess of £325 million.

“The telecoms market is getting more and more competitive and is ripe for consolidation,” Gillespie said.

“Muckle has advised us on everything we’ve been through and have been excellent to do business with. Post acquisition of Fone Logistics, I plan to spend more time with my family, but will also be working on my new business interest,” he added

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New figures just released show that franchises are bucking the economic trend and continuing to be profitable.

Despite the much publicised downturn, franchise businesses have remained a success story. The release of the 2010 Natwest/BFA Annual Franchise Survey confirmed that as many as 90 per cent of franchisees trading last year were doing so profitably. Revenues in the sector rose to £11.8 billion in the past year – which is an increase of £400 million.

This is an impressive and noteworthy statistic when looked at against the backdrop of other recession-riddled industries in 2009.

Figures also show that now is a good time to start a franchise business. Despite the downturn, this is an industry that continues to grow and perform. Many would argue that the success of the franchise is due in no small part to the perfecting of a concept.

A proven plan offered by franchises can give a new or growing business a head start. The findings from the annual survey are sure to give a welcomed boost to the franchise and small business community. Providing evidence that they are continuing to weather the economic storm.

While no new business is without risk or can be fully ‘recession proof’ the survey points to bright days ahead for the franchise industry.

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