Suppliers and other creditors of the collapsed Testerworld business are likely to miss out on more than £28m owed following the company's demise.
A new report from administrators at Kroll, which is handling the affairs of the company that was based out of Prudhoe and had sites around the country, shows unsecured creditors have come forward with claims for £28.1m, from an estimated £57m owed. But despite a complex winding down of the company which has cost around £1.3m so far, there is unlikely to be funds available to them.
Testerworld, which was part of the £300m turnover Converse Pharma Group and operated under the DE Group brand, collapsed in May this year. It was joined by stablemates Eclipse Generics Limited and Doncaster Pharmaceuticals in May, leaving 1,000 people redundant.
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Since then, administrators have closed most of its 11 depots around the country - including the Northumberland site - which were used to supply some 4,000 pharmacies. Two of the sites in Runcorn and Oldbury, where the majority of the company's stock was taken, are still occupied with plans to vacate "shortly". Part of the business in Northern Ireland, including a licence to occupy a depot there, was sold in September.
Some Testerworld employees were kept on to facilitate the winding down of the business, which included overseeing stock takes and the destruction of controlled drugs. Administrators said efforts to sell leftover stock have taken a long time - including one failed deal - due to licensing regulations surrounding the products and the limitations of Testerworld's stock management systems.
Two funders of Testerworld - invoice financing operator STB and Tablet Finance - were owed £17.8m and £3.5m respectively. STB has helped finance the wind down of the company and has received what it was owed, plus a surplus from debts collected. Tablet Finance has also been paid from that surplus.
Earlier this year, administrators confirmed that Testworld's collapse came about after sector regulator the MHRA temporarily suspended its licence for an unknown breach. The suspension was said to have caused difficulties it could not recover from.
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