The Valldata Group, which provides payment solutions to the charity sector, made an operating loss of more than £572,000 for the year ending March 2014 and has since lost several senior executives.
Sales increased by 16 per cent from £7.5m in 2013 to £8.7m in 2014 through the acquisition of new clients and the introduction of new services.
Its accounts state that: “To achieve this growth required significant investment in technology, management processes and extra delivery and support resources.”
The accounts show a charge of £420,000 for “exceptional administrative expenses” which “relate to restructuring and refinancing costs” and is not included in the profit and loss accounts.
The group has a £1m revolving credit facility and a £500,000 overdraft facility. It also has £11.5m in loans from the Royal Bank of Scotland and shareholders to fund long-term investments. Its balance sheet shows net liabilities were £3m, up from £1.5m the previous year.
The accounts, which were filed last month, were three months late, and Valldata Services and Charity Pay which are subsidiary companies were also filed late.
Valldata Services saw its sales figures increase by six per cent, with turnover of £7.9m. But its operating profit declined by 77 per cent from £1.6m in 2013 to £377,000 in 2014.
Accounts for Charity Pay, also a subsidiary of the Valldata Group, show an operating deficit of £35,000 with sales of £761,000. It was dormant the previous year.
Management restructure
A number of senior members of staff have left the business in the past six months, including Hamish Horton (pictured) the former managing director who led the management buyout a few years ago.
Horton most recently held the job title director of business development until April 2015, before that he was the managing director.
Other senior members of staff to have left include Andrew Ross, who was chief executive between November 2013 and November 2014 and Simon Hardman who was chief finance officer between January 2011 and October 2014. Andrew Moss joined as chief finance officer in 2014.
Gary Stokes, interim chief executive of Valldata, told Civil Society News that he was appointed last October and his role is “helping the business step up to the next level”. He said that process was “coming to an end” and that the business would be in a position to announce the appointment of a permanent chief executive in the next couple of weeks.
Stokes said that Horton left the business because after 15 years it “was time to move on” and that he is still the “largest single investor” and continues to be involved in a non-executive role.
He said that accounts were filed late with Companies House because the company was in the process reorganising its finance arrangements with its bank so that it has more cash available shortly after the Christmas period, which is its busiest time.
Stokes expects that accounts for the year ending March 2015 will be filed this summer and will show that the company is in a strong position with “continuing growth”.
