I still need the reassurance of a familiar brand before it's a real story - Tony Maddox, CNN senior VP
Richard Austin, who founded the company 23 years ago, is back as MD following the departure of Brad Walker, finance director David Hards, non-executive director Bill Joss and procurement director Shaun Morris a few weeks ago.
Sources report that many contractors and suppliers remain unpaid, although the company had given priority to small or local suppliers. A $22 million line of credit was anounced late last week from Dubai-based investment company PCC, headed by ex-Time Computers boss Tahir Mohsan.
It was also revealed that the company stopped accepting debit card payments a month ago. All of the company's retail stores with the exception of Evesham itself, which was open as normal at the weekend, are to close.
A somewhat bitter article has appeared on Wikipedia concerning the Time involvement with Evesham, which includes the phrases Time Computer had a controversial business history with an exceptionally low rate of customer satisfaction' and Time UK plans to restructure using the Evesham name on their inferior products'. No doubt Time's legal team are already on the case.
More details about the deal are expected to be made public later today. µ