Company gone bust , owing us £6k but we have their stock

[matjk]

Got the email today, apologies and all that, said a receiver would be in touch about the outstanding invoice and stock, my guess is they will request the stock back , then in 3 months we get a letter saying no cash so no payment.
What can they do if we refuse to give it back ?
Or tell them to invoice us for it and take it out of our bill ?

[Terminator X]

They haven't paid for it though?

TX.

[bad company]

If the stock belongs to them I reckon you’ll have to return it, minus a storage charge though.

[matjk]

Storage charge will be equivalent to the outstanding invoice as it wasn’t agreed , and cash up front , my guess is get stock back then a prepack deal will be done with owner. Company runs again and all debts gone ,
Interestingly the big bill was for us to brand the stock with the DP World logo for golf tournaments, unfortunately DP World is not our customer as they have a few more quid to go after

[r3g]

If you give them the stock, you won't see your money or your stock again. Forget the rules, do what you need to do.

[matjk]

I doubt we will ever see any money , but I also doubt they will ever see their stock again ,
Now we are stuck with 3 pallets of metal drinking bottles, they don’t have much value , but I’d rather scrap them than let them have them back

[Rufus Stone]

matjk said:

I doubt we will ever see any money , but I also doubt they will ever see their stock again ,
Now we are stuck with 3 pallets of metal drinking bottles, they don’t have much value , but I’d rather scrap them than let them have them back

Do I understand this correctly.

The bottle belong to the defunct business.
You are/have done something to them, and your invoice for that remains unpaid.

Does your T&C's give you lien over the bottles while you have an invoice outstanding? If not, retaining them would be theft.

Having said that, if as you state the bottles have little value the Received probably will be happy to wash their hand of them.

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Doesn't theft mean they "intend to permanently deprive"?

I doubt they want three pallets of drinking bottles and if their invoice is paid, the bottles can go back to the defunct business or their prepack.

[matjk]

They sent us 6 pallets , 3 have been used to complete about 10 orders , we held the stock and shipped it out after it was engraved.
So like a drop shipper, the stock is already half branded with the defunct company’s logo ,
It will almost zero value unless the company prepacks , then it will be useful,
No sign of any financial issues on their Facebook , linked in etc , still posting , still sponsoring golf tournaments so best guess is this is debt deletion exercise

[President Merkin]

Been there. If there is no intrinsic value in the stock, then you're probably stuffed as I guess you know. Obvious steps, ignore the hand wringing moralists talking theft, hand over nothing without payment. Even scrap value is better than nothing. If the administrators do come along stick to your guns - they will threaten legal action if you dig in. IME, it's often as not a bluff but judge the situation in its merits. Blacklist the co.& its directors. There's always more customers. If it comes to it, write off the debts against tax & move on.

[Tom8]

Always interesting in cases like these where a firm goes bump but they were to that point still spending money on unnecessary stuff like this which was probably done for an event they were also spending on. Almost that thinking that it will all be fine when in reality it won't.

[r3g]

President Merkin said:

Been there. If there is no intrinsic value in the stock, then you're probably stuffed as I guess you know. Obvious steps, ignore the hand wringing moralists talking theft, hand over nothing without payment. Even scrap value is better than nothing. If the administrators do come along stick to your guns - they will threaten legal action if you dig in. IME, it's often as not a bluff but judge the situation in its merits. Blacklist the co.& its directors. There's always more customers. If it comes to it, write off the debts against tax & move on.

This ^

Nothing will come of any threats. They would potentially be interested if your stuff had considerable value that could be sold for a tidy sum, but by your own admission there's no market for it due to all their branding you've just applied, so the value to the receivers is 0.

See if there's any of their branded stuff sold on ebay either new or secondhand. You may be surprised what escape doors open up for you with a little research...

[President Merkin]

Would add there are plenty of grey market wholesalers out there a phone call away who'll buy anything if the price is right, In our experience that's often pennies in the pound but again, something is better than nothing.

[RicksAlfas]

matjk said:

Storage charge will be equivalent to the outstanding invoice as it wasn’t agreed , and cash up front , my guess is get stock back then a prepack deal will be done with owner. Company runs again and all debts gone ,
Interestingly the big bill was for us to brand the stock with the DP World logo for golf tournaments, unfortunately DP World is not our customer as they have a few more quid to go after

Can you try and get hold of someone in DP World () marketing department and explain the situation?
Dodgy middle man has gone bust, but you have their bottles and can you do a deal direct?

[Actual]

Presumably you will need to pay the cost for the waste disposal of this stock.

[ChocolateFrog]

Might have some scrap value if they're Aluminium.

Or some market trader might have them for a few pence in the pound.

[Hammersia]

RicksAlfas said:

matjk said:

Storage charge will be equivalent to the outstanding invoice as it wasn’t agreed , and cash up front , my guess is get stock back then a prepack deal will be done with owner. Company runs again and all debts gone ,
Interestingly the big bill was for us to brand the stock with the DP World logo for golf tournaments, unfortunately DP World is not our customer as they have a few more quid to go after

Can you try and get hold of someone in DP World () marketing department and explain the situation?
Dodgy middle man has gone bust, but you have their bottles and can you do a deal direct?

I believe they have the logo of the defunct company on them as well.

[matjk]

They indeed do have the defunct company logo on them,
They came to use from china like that,
It could probably be covered over or removed in some way, they are quite nice stainless bottles , painted in different colours.
It’s annoying they played the game with getting extra work out of us while being overdue, they were always a flaky paying , but eventually they did hense we ended up be more flexible than we should with putting them on stop .
Hey ho , not the first time and it won’t be the last .

[Frimley111R]

They owe you £6k and all you have is some almost worthless stock of theirs ultimately.

It's not like you can use it as a bargaining chip. You may be able to sell it for a few quid but that'll probably just pay for the time you spent organising this

You've lost £6k which is utterly crap and there's zero hope of getting it back from a bankrupt company. As you say, just move on.

[NFT]

matjk said:

They indeed do have the defunct company logo on them,
They came to use from china like that,
It could probably be covered over or removed in some way, they are quite nice stainless bottles , painted in different colours.
It’s annoying they played the game with getting extra work out of us while being overdue, they were always a flaky paying , but eventually they did hense we ended up be more flexible than we should with putting them on stop .
Hey ho , not the first time and it won’t be the last .

Definitely not sound advice, but cover them over with your logo/offer free logo sample if worth it cost wise and send them out to potential customers, gyms, clubs, events etc.. if you normally wouldn't do that. Might land a small number of contracts you otherwise wouldn't have got that pay you the bill.