An estate agency in Plymouth has been saved from closure after the firm that ran it went bust.
Pilkington Estates, which launched five years ago by Jon Pilkington, will continue to trade from its offices in Sutton Harbour and Stoke and all its staff have retained their jobs.
This is despite Pilkington Estates Ltd appointing liquidators following a meeting of creditors this week. The company’s existing offices, 12 staff and portfolio of almost 300 properties has been acquired by a new company, South West Peninsula Real Estate Ltd, which will trade as Pilkington Estates.
Jon Pilkington said that after taking legal advice, liquidating the company was considered the best way forward after the struggling business. He said a “settlement figure” was being agreed with creditors owed money.
According to the estate agency’s founder, Pilkington Estates’ customers will not notice any change, with the new company taking over the 120 properties it has for sale in the South West, and the 160 that are under offer.
He told the press: “We will continue as normal, the new company has purchased all contracted agreements from Pilkington Estates Ltd, and will trade as Pilkington Estates.”
He added: “After five successful years, due to the implications of the pandemic some years ago we have been forced to make some difficult decisions. Over the years, similarly with so many local businesses, the economic conditions over months at a time saw our income drastically decrease, whilst our outgoings only grew.
“Many other companies made the decision to close offices and to make staff redundant, which we respect is the easiest solution. However our staff are like family, so that was not an option for us.
“We are pleased to state that every member of staff, along with our offices in Sutton Harbour and Stoke, and our property portfolio of both for sale and sale agreed properties, have now been acquired by a new firm, who will continue to trade as Pilkington Estates.”
This sort of pre-pack deal should be made illegal …. He has wiped out the debt, and then has the nerve to actually state ‘ We will continue as normal’ ….. l wonder how many of his suppliers will be thinking the same? A five year banning order would be a better outcome.
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This is disgusting. Effectivley the same owner, who gets to walk away from the debt and start again.
These sort of things really need to be made illegal.
“We will continue as normal, the new company has purchased all contracted agreements from Pilkington Estates Ltd, and will trade as Pilkington Estates.”
So are we expecting the same to happen again in a few years time.
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Totally agree with the above comments and not the first time this has happened and until steps are taken to stop this from happening it will continue. In all most all cases such as this HMRC are the biggest creditors and have currently no powers to go after the current/previous directors to recover their (our) money. Smaller creditors are usually looked after with a nod and a wink and it’s then drinks all round and off we go again with a new car on order. Same thing happened up in the North East sometime ago chap liquidated company wife then purchased business from the receiver husband ( previous owner) then installed as non-equity Chairman! Wink Wink
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It is clear that the comapny is NOT the same
DUH
It is under NEW OWNERSHIP by an inverstor who KEPT THE SAME NAME
Mr Pilkington is not the owner now
Nice to see that the holier tha thou posters care nothing at all about the people who would be unemployed if the compamy had closed
I am sure the staff are delighted and looking forward
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Jan,
not even trying to disguise the fact that he is the director of both companies, even the service address at Companies House is exactly the same!
Don’t worry though the new liebor government will be all over this sort of thing!
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Oh for goodness sake, how come you are sticking up for this crook? He owns BOTH companies and created the second one in February 2024 so its OBVIOUS what he intended to do. He also owes Pilkington Estates over £200k!!
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Maybe think for 2 seconds before posting.
Companies House confirms same owners.
So yes, we can and will be holier than thou.
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@jan-byers Look at companies house. Mr Pilkington is the director of the new company and the director of the old one….same person running it
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300 properties managed and 12 staff. Its not surprising !! We manage 200 with a staff of 3 !
Agree with previous postings as no doubt they’ll be going bust again soon.
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This whole story just gets more wrong, the more you start to look into it. In five years, this chap only filed 2 sets of Micro Entity accounts with CH. The latest, show him ‘advancing’ himself £253,407, against a Capital & Reserve figure of £64,468! In addition, he states ‘after taking legal advice, liquidating the company was considered the best way forward’ ….. well his new company was formed on 4th February this year! So presumably, he has had this whole ‘dump the debt’ plan since then, if not before and, has been trading insolvently for some time.
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So a Company with a sole Director called Jon Pilkington is in financial trouble so a Company comes along to save the day and the sole Director of the new Company is called Jon Pilkington. You couldn’t make this up!! As some of the other people have said, this is an absolute disgrace and tantamount to fraud. He needs to be struck off and banned from running a company for life. What about the creditors he owes money to? Unbelievable.
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