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Tony Stanton Agency Called England

An Agency Called England reaches 'Voluntary Agreement' with creditors

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

March 10, 2011 | 3 min read

An Agency Called England has entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement with its creditors in order to avoid being wound-up by a former landlord.

Tony Stanton, managing director said it will now allow them to draw a line under a difficult period for the business and focus on developing England from its profitable Leeds core.

The Voluntary Arrangement device is often used by insolvent companies as an alternative to liquidation.

A legal process it requires the company appointing an insolvency practitioner who via a creditors meeting attempts to agree a discount on what is owed. As long as 75% of the creditors, by debt value, agree then the CVA is accepted – and all creditors are bound by the terms whether they voted or not.

Creditors are also unable to take further action and other legal moves such as Winding Up Orders lapse.

During the CVA, payments are made in a single monthly amount to the insolvency practitioner. The fees charged by the practitioner are then deducted from these payments, meaning the company is not required to fund further cost.

Stanton told The Drum, “The irony was that England was not insolvent as far as its trade creditors were concerned. The problem was we had claims from one former landlord and a current landlord which we were disputing.

“One went for a Winding Up Order which was ridiculous. However, in order to resolve it we looked at the Voluntary Arrangement but when we went down that route we had to put our entire creditors book into the process.

“We are now able to put this behind us. England is still here alive and kicking. We could have simply walked away, but choose to stay and fight for this business.”

Stanton recently downgraded his South East operations, and put a planned expansion into the Midlands on hold as the company retrenched to focus on its core Leeds operations. The process has seen its headcount drop from around 60 to 20 over the last two years.

However, he claims he is now back in a more expansive mood. “We are currently in temporary office in Leeds, but will be moving into a new base soon. And although our plans for the Midland's have stalled, we are still looking at that market. Our ideal route now would be through acquisitions and we are speaking to one or two interested parties at the moment.”

Tony Stanton Agency Called England

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