THA founder Kevin Ingram sets up new company

Leanne Bell , 02 September 2009

THA Group founder Kevin Ingram has set up a new events and business consultancy company in the wake of his agency's collapse.

Ingram's company, the Waterford House Partnership, has taken on three staff, all of whom previously worked for THA Group, and is based in Leicestershire. He said the company has secured at least one client for event work.

The Waterford House Partnership will focus on providing events, production and consultancy services but will not offer reward and recognition schemes. "I initially want to build something smallish and create a presence and a brand," he said.

Ingram said he would put business practices in place at the new company that would help ensure it avoided a similar fate to the THA Group, of which he was chairman when it went into administration.

"The loss of THA, which I started in my back room many years ago and named after my children, was unbelievable and it hurts like hell," he said. "I'm so sad that so many people lost their jobs and lost money through its demise.

"There will be a lot of people gunning for me because - sadly and incorrectly - they assume I brought down the company but they don't understand that this has actually cost me £1m personally," he said. "I don't have control over the market or the global economy."

Ingram said he had turned down a number of "unbelievable" job offers, including posts of chief executive for a "significant visitor attraction" and a property-ownership company. "It's just not me," he said. "I'm 51 years old and I can't go and be a sales or account director or even a chief executive - it's just not possible."

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All Comments

Milesy - 03 September 2009

I'm not surprised people are gunning for him, what with the company going into administration owing unsecured creditors £6.4m

Robert Denton - 03 September 2009

The administrator gets his money out of the sale of assets of the company, before any creditors including employees and the crown.

What I do find astonishing in this case is that the amount raised by the administrators seems to be very small compared to the debt. Typically it's around 10p in the pound \(www.insolvency.gov.uk states that auction values are around 10%) which would suggest £640k but reports I've seen suggest that the firm's assets were sold for £50k, or less than 1%.

I'm sure that it will all come out in the wash. It will be interesting to see what RBS was lending against.

Leanne Bell - 04 September 2009

We actually reported that some - as opposed to all - of THA Group's assets were purchased by BI for £50,000.

Please see the link to the original story:

http://www.citmagazine.com/news/931372/RBS-owed-17m-THA-collapse/

Beatrice Wheeler - 28 September 2009

The word within the industry is that Kevin's new company has its first major client. We understand it is BT and he is dealing with the same people he did when running THA. Yet three divisions within BT are listed as among the creditors left high and dry by THA's demise. I wonder how Kevin's friends at BT have managed to persuade "procurement" that, having lost their money once already, he won't do the same again? I think it's a question that deserves an answer