Evesham boss blames Gordon Brown

Sales hit by axing of tax break on computers - but warranties will be honoured

Written by Clive Akass

Evesham Technology chairman Richard Austin has confirmed our earlier story that the company has gone into liquidation with the loss of 150 jobs

But he promised that warranties will be honoured and customers will still get support from "Evesham’s award winning service.”

Austin, who sounded in tears when PCW spoke to him on Friday, blamed the company's troubles on the loss of £30m in turnover since last year when the then Chancellor Gordon Brown axed the Home Computer Initiative, which gave people tax incentives on PCs bought through their companies.

"Other strong companies in the industry were hit hard by the demise of the HCI scheme. Many of these companies have not been fortunate enough to continue trading, resulting in the closure of many established UK companies and a loss of a number of jobs,” he said in a statement.

“We had heavily invested and allocated many resources to the HCI scheme and as a result around 150 loyal and hardworking Evesham staff have also unavoidably lost their jobs.

"Many of the staff had worked for Evesham Technology for a number of years and so it is a sad loss to the Evesham Technology family, and to me personally. I have built this company from nothing over a 24-year period and only wish we could have avoided this situation.”

Austin confirmed that the Evesham Technology brand will continue following a $22m investment Tahir Mohsan, of PCC Technology, whom he described as a "well known investor in the industry".

"The company now known as GeeMore Technology Ltd will continue trading as Evesham Technology. As it stands 138 people are still employed here at Evesham,” the statement said.

It concluded: "We hope that we have now past [sic] this unfortunate time in our company’s history and can look to a positive future.”

The administrators are believed to be DTE Leonard Curtis.

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