Gilco sale falls through on pension shortfall

Gilco, a Tunbridge Wells-based Rx lab, has been placed into administration by its managing director, Keith Stevens, after the last minute failure of a third party to complete a purchase.

Stevens told Optician that he had held talks with another optical company about the acquisition of Gilco in February 2010 and revealed that a sale and purchase agreement had been written by solicitors. Yet, according to Stevens, the potential buyer postponed the purchase date on a number of occasions from March onwards due to issues with the agreement.

'Because the purchase date kept being postponed, the bank became a little jittery. They [the potential buyer] were due to complete on June 8, so I had no alternative but to put the company into administration, so on the 9th the administrators came in and made everyone redundant,' he said.