Print Week reports on the end of Landry Kouakou’s ‘short lived empire’ as Tactical Solutions and Flare enter administration

Print Week reports on the end of Landry Kouakou’s ‘short lived empire’ as Tactical Solutions and Flare enter administration

The ghosts of St Ives and the SP Group still haunt the mortal worlds of print and marketing when the last of Landry Kouakou’s media empire finally came to an end.

Trade publication Print Week marked the last rites of the once mighty outfit with a report charting the firm’s final two businesses entering administration.

The publication reported: “St Ives – now Kin + Carta – sold its £106m turnover wide-format printing business to Kouakou’s SelmerBridge holding company in March 2018 in a £6m deal that was backed by Dublin-based finance firm Sitara. Retail print subsidiary SP Group went into administration just four months later and then ceased production, while sister company Service Graphics went the same way in January 2019, with Paragon Group subsequently buying the Service Graphics name and two of its sites.

“The remaining two businesses in the original group of companies, field marketing firms Tactical Solutions UK and its subsidiary Flare, are now in administration as well. Tactical Solutions UK went into administration on 24 April with Allan Graham and Matthew Ingram of Duff & Phelps again handling the case. The share capital of Tactical Solutions UK was held by SelmerBridge Print Vehicles (SPV), formerly SelmerBridge, which went into administration itself in July 2019.”

The full story can be read here: https://www.printweek.com/news/article/admin-for-two-more-kouakou-firms

Ian Carrotte of ICSM Credit said: “2020 seems to be the year when the once mighty saw their empires fall as the cold reality of business caught up with them. Covid-19 is killing off some companies but the writing was on the wall for many long before the virus appeared. All of these company collapses have massive collateral damage with a long list of creditors left with very little or nothing.

"It is easy to be seduced into supplying what appear to be successful big names but these firms are often built on sand and driven by people who have little regard for paying their invoices on time. Some suppliers will take out invoice insurance but many of the smaller suppliers will not due to cost. Their best bet is to join ICSM Credit – currently free to join during the Covid-19 crisis – to get inside information on which companies are quietly in trouble.”

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For details about ICSM Credit call 0844 854 1850 or visit the website www.icsmcredit.com or email Ian at Ian.carrotte@icsmcredit.com on how to subscribe and to join the UK’s credit intelligence network to avoid bad debts and late payers. Follow ICSM Credit on FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube and Ian Carrotte on LinkedIn.

To keep up to date subscribe to the FREE ICSM Credit Newsletter to hear all the latest insolvency news and to see who has gone out of business click on the orange panel on the top left of the home page of the website www.icsmcredit.com or send an email to Ian.carrotte@icsmcredit.com

For details for the work of the journalist Harry Mottram visit www.harrymottram.co.uk


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