News

A Coventry-based freight transport company is on the verge of being liquidated, with the loss of around 50 jobs, after a petition for its winding-up was presented to the Royal Courts of Justice.

HM Revenue and Customs presented its petition on 27 November 2006, naming itself a creditor of Coventry Express Services (CES). Now the other creditors are waiting to see if there will be any money left over to pay them.

According to  local reports, CES's drivers only found out about the firm's financial crisis when they turned up for work at its Exhall depot last Tuesday and were told not to take any vehicles out.

The company, which has been trading for 13 years, is best known for handling international work to countries as far afield as Turkey, Greece and Romania.

It has a fleet of 38-tonne artics and 17 and 7.5-tonne rigids, as well as a warehouse with more than 23,000m² of space.

Its last set of accounts, for the year ending 31 December 2005, revealed an operating loss before tax of almost £400,000 on a turnover of £4.5m. At that point its short-term debts were around £2m.

When we contacted Coventry Express Services' managing director, Kevin Bennet, we were asked to call him back. He told us: "I am with some people doing valuations on some vehicles." Bennet did not answer any more of our calls before we went to press.

An HMRC solicitor says: "If we don't  get the money before [7 February] we will wind up the company. If they settle in seven days we will dismiss the petition."

Companies House also lists John and Josephine McKay as company directors.