Confusion is growing around the disintegration of Granville Technology, the company which was previously thought to own the Time and Tiny PC retailing brands.
Grant Thornton, the administrators which were sent into Granville after the group collapsed last Wednesday, have admitted that they have been unable to find out exactly who owns the group's various assets.
And, in a surprise development, one of the previous owners of the group has claimed that manufacturing of computers, flat screens and notebooks will continue. Tahir Mohsan, chief executive of Time Group Middle East (TGME), also said that TGME will continue with a $40m (£23m)deal for a manufacturing facility capable of building a million PCs and laptops a year.
At its peak, Granville Technology Group (GTG) had a £300m annual turnover and over a million users in the UK. It owned the Tiny and Time computer brands as well retail chain The Computer Shop. The group collapsed last week with huge debts after its bankers, HSBC, withdrew credit facilities. Its debts could be in excess of £30m.
In order to administer the company, Grant Thornton first has to find out who owns what. The Time, Tiny and The Computer Shop brands could be worth selling, but the question of ownership has proven difficult to answer.
"There is some value in the brands even though they are very tarnished," Martin Ellis, an administrator from Grant Thornton, told The Independent. "You have to say who owns the brands in the business… [We don't know who yet, but] it's not from lack of trying."
Staff have long voiced concern at the ownership structure of the Time Group which was split into many different companies and brands. Officially, six companies are in administration.
The latest twist in the tale came on Saturday when Mohsan issued a statement saying that "the UK manufacturing facility is not affected by GTG's collapse and will continue to produce plasma and flat-screen TVs as well as notebooks and PCs" according to the Dubai-based publishers, ITP Technology.
"GTG was a major customer of the UK factory and Time Group Middle East is in negotiations with GTG's administrators to support its existing customers. We are looking to increase sales to our other customers to minimise any effects on the factory, however, retail sales accounted for only 15 percent of the UK factory’s operations," Mohsan added.
The manufacturing operation employed around 500 and, according to the statement, could survive. The statement also stressed that TGME was not connected to Granville Technology Group.
To add further confusion, another company called P400.com with a street address close to Time/Tiny that shares its Indian call centre appears to be trading as an online catalogue for laptops, flat-screen TVs and other products from suppliers including Apple and Acer. With its own line of products, P400 appears to be in competition with Tiny/Time but has been set up for some time and sales people at Granville "started to promote it about three months ago", according to a source at Granville.
Talkback
why doesn't Mr Mohsan pay *his* employees wages?.
Not surprised at all by reading this article, in fact I've been wondering about TGME for the last few days.....
Somebody, other than Administrators, needs to investigate fully as to Mr Mohsan's dealing, as something is obviously not right at all.
Has anybody ever thought about the timing for this close-down of Granville? As one of the suppliers who is now losing a lot of money, I must say that we for years already have found the company pretty strange. When we visited their factory in Burnley, we even joked about that it was a perfect cover for making money for groups like alkaida.
The last few weeks they drew a lot of goods out of the so-called consignee stock, making suppliers to lose big time.
Now I really wonder. Maybe it was not a joke.......
Ah the merry go round that is the directors of Granville. They are all in it together and they need fully investigating. Supanet P400 and VMT (manurfacturing dept.) are all owned by the Mohsans. All this is a big con. I am totally disgusted.
Please can everyone sign this petition http://www.petitiononline.com/Time/petition.html
Desperately sorry for all the employees of Tiny/Time but don't forget the customers! I cashed in a Life Insurance policy in order to get £898.42 to buy a machine for the daughter of a friend. Taken from my account (debit card), 24.06.05. NO computer arrived! Now I'm told I'm bottom of the list of creditors! NO COMPUTER! NO MONEY! Little prospect of seeing either!! Must be others in the same boat.
I agree, no one INCLUDING Grant Thornton seem to be able to confirm who owns the assets (some due to their customers). Do a search on the company who sold you the goods and you will find they are not part of the administration order! The DTI should be in place to make sure consumers get what they have paid for, either goods or a cash refund to purchase elsewhere.
It APPEARS that HSBC are in charge at present and are trying to secure as much for themselves as they can, perhaps at the expense of the CUSTOMERS. If HSBC had not pulled the plug would customers be receiving any goods by now?
Everyone needs the TRUTH now. Come on DTI step in and do what you are paid to do....
What is going to happen to people like me who have taken out Total Care and now have no support?. Who has all that money, will we get it back or will we have to scrap our machines
I would like to know how I can recover my property from Time Computers. As an unsecured creditor I will not get my £836 back, so I want my laptop and software back...functioning or not. How many others are in this position?
Isnt it strange that when car maker Rover went into administration there was all this talk about trying to save the compnay and those employees that were made redundant were paid by the goverment. Why is Time being treated differently? The directors of Rover made millions out of the company's collapse. We need to look at the wider picture, manufacturing in this country is dead and who is to blame for that, the government