A COACH company which was a well-known name in Dorset for generations is being liquidated following its collapse last year.

Seventeen people lost their jobs when Poole-based Sea View Coaches went into administration last April.

The company, which started in the mid-1960s, had faced difficulties for several years before the Covid pandemic put paid to hopes of a rescue.

The administrators who were appointed to handle the company’s affairs a year ago have now been made liquidators. They will arrange a “significant” payment to unsecured creditors.

17 redundancies as administrators seek buyer for Sea View Coaches

Administrators sold the company’s Fancy Road site for £627,000, which was “significantly” higher than original estimates.

Most of the company’s coaches were leased from two finance companies, but two were sold at auction for a total of £19,000. Another £1,000 was raised from two other vehicles owned by the company.

An update from administrators Neil Vinnicombe and Simon Haskew, of Begbies Traynor, said another £2,209 owed to the company had been collected since last autumn but the rest of its book debts had been written off.

Sea View Coaches site sold for £627,000 ahead of liquidation

Its secured creditor, HSBC, had been paid £172,106 in final settlement. Preferential creditors – who consist of staff and the government’s Redundancy Payments Service – received £2,695 in February.

Money owed to unsecured creditors was originally estimated at £203,797, including £92,946 owed to the business’s own directors.

“There are sufficient realisations for a significant dividend to be paid to the unsecured creditors which will be paid by the subsequently appointed liquidators,” the report said.

Sea View Coaches was originally set up with one coach, mainly to transport staff to and from the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Winfrith.

It expanded into a successful private hire coach firm, running work, school and leisure trips in the UK and on the continent.

It ran trips to national and international speedway meetings and had been a sponsor of the Poole Pirates speedway team.

Previous reports by administrators said the business traded profitably for decades before running into difficulties in 2016.

Some coaches were re-financed and the workforce was cut by half, with many on zero hours contracts or working part time.

A potential buyer for the business reduced their offer at the start of the Covid crisis, prompting the directors to pull out of the deal. The business was placed into administration after other options were discussed.

Mr Vinnicombe and Mr Haskew have now been appointed as liquidators to oversee a creditors’ voluntary liquidation.