50 jobs lost as Telford IT firm entatech collapses

Entatech, which is based on Stafford Park, has been struggling for "some time", and has now been placed into administration by its directors.

The company is a trade-only distributor of PC hardware, software, components and networking, and counts retailers and resellers among its customers.

The company has experienced a rocky few years, leading to a takeover of the business and a restructure in 2015.

But on Tuesday Chris Pole and Mark Orton from KPMG were appointed joint administrators.

The move has immediately led to 50 redundancies at the company, with 29 employees retained while the administrators look to sell the business.

Mr Pole said: "Entatech has been affected by difficult trading conditions for some time.

"Following a change in ownership and attempts to restructure the business, the loss of a number of key contracts and declining sales has led to a significant drain on the company’s financial situation. This ultimately led to the directors taking the difficult decision to place it into administration.

“We are currently reviewing options for Entatech and we would encourage anybody who may be interested to contact the joint administrators as soon as possible."

The company's turnover had fallen from £117 million to £103 million last year, as it attempted to stabilise in the wake of a legal case involving Changtel, a separate business from which it bought a number of assets in 2013.

Earlier this year Jason Tsai, the former Changtel managing director, was barred from being a company director for 13 years after a long-running investigation by HM Revenue & Customs.

He had also been a director of Entatech, but has had no involvement in that company in the run-up to the administration.

Reports had suggested that a takeover deal for Entatech had been in the offing before this week's collapse into administration, but that these had ultimately ended without success.