"Is there trouble at Wargames Foundry?" Topic

link

explained:

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I take it that a strike-off declaration is similar to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy here in the US.

Dave

I hope they are ok, I was about to buy a load of paint :-(

Dave,

No, it isn't the same as filing for bankruptcy. That's called "Filing for bankruptcy". It's an application to remove the company from Companies House as it has effectively stopped trading.

Trebian

So is it safe to place an order?

Jules

Hmmm ….on the surface, that doesn't look good?!

Well legal jargon doesn't always mean the same thing in different countries. So when you say "stopped trading" does that mean the company is no longer selling to the public or does it mean its no longer trading its stock. Big difference there I would think.

"Is their trouble at Wargames Foundry?"

Seems there is. Their trouble is that they haven't filed their accounts since 2013 …

It would mean it has ceased trading.

However they have to have ceased trading for 3 months before they can be struck off the register of Companies.

It seems strange as the website has just announced a new shop in Stoke for them and they are listed as being at Salute.

It may be that the company intends to cease being a limited company but to continue trading as a different kind of entity.

It means "not sold anything" – looking at the first link, the wording is "notification" not "application", though, and elsewhere there's mention that it's a section 652.

That means that it's action by companies house, not a request by the company. As they also have the note "accounts overdue" that's almost certainly the reason. The explanation behind it could be nothing more than the accountant screwed up and they weren't filed on time, but the short version is they need to do something about it….

link

Well this sucks….. I sent off an order two weeks ago.

You would think we, as customer's would have noticed if Foundry wasn't selling anything to the public. Plus, can't people who live near their factory actually go there and buy stuff on the weekends? (I seem to recall reading some posts in the past about this). Has anyone bought anything and gotten their order recently? I'm not sure what companies house is since I don't live in England or what the impact of being struck from its roster means in terms of a business entity's ability to keep its doors open and sell to the public.

The numbers on the pseudo-balance sheet in the first link suggest a startingly scary rise in liabilities and decline in net worth. If those 2012-13 numbers carried over into 2014 then this company is going down the tubes and soon someone else will be running Foundry.

As a business lawyer, albeit in the U.S., this could also ONLY mean that they are changing form, from a registered entity down to being a proprietorship. Maybe their sales have shrunk enough that it does not make sense to stay a company? I don't know what obligations the UK imposes on such an entity.

All that being said, my bet is that this is not a positive development for the current owners.

Wasn't it last year (2014) that the new owners took over? It could simply mean that another firm is now behind it and the old one seased to exist. I've seen them trading in 2014 and 2015 on shows.

As above, maybe they're just taking the company private.

DM

Check this out. I just went to the Foundry web page to see if they had anything about this posted.

Notice the insufficient credit notice at the top center. I don't think I have ever seen this on a web page before. It can't be good.

Dave

At the top of their web site it says:

[75.118.87.169][INSUFFICIENT CREDIT]

Whatever that means.

Think I might wait until I pop over to the UK in July, and hope it is all sorted.

Jules

Trouble at' mill?

YouTube link

The thing that actually caught my eye was the resignation of the auditor back in 2013. That often times means nothing but some other times can be a signal of problems…either the company finding the auditors weren't doing their job properly or the auditors finding things in the books they're no longer comfortable putting their name to.

Given the history, brand value, assets in terms of inventory, tooling and IP, I personally have to imagine there may be a rough patch that someone is working to get through. As others have mentioned, this may involve a "re-org" of sorts to clear the path forward. It's tough to imagine (though not impossible, of course) a firm like Foundry simply disappearing.

Either way, here's to them keeping/getting things good as a longtime asset to our hobby.

Hopefully tomorrow someone that lives near by will pop over and see if the doors are open or give them call and see if they are answering the phone (they are closed today). Perhaps the Foundry folks will have a good explanation if we can manage to communicate with them.

I noticed the "Insufficient Credit" label as well but thought it was just a coding mistake.

DM

In itself it means nothing more than that they are seriously bad at the company's admin and haven't been meeting their legal requirements as a limited company – awkward for them personally from a legal liability perspective if they do end up getting struck off and revert to being a business with unlimited liability, and possibly for their future roles as directors, but essentially it's just poor housekeeping on the business admin front and nothing that's a particular concern from a consumer point of view.

Absent any negative indicators elsewhere, it says nothing about their financial stability or future trading intentions and it's just idle speculation to say otherwise.

Absent any negative indicators elsewhere, it says nothing about their financial stability or future trading intentions and it's just idle speculation to say otherwise.

Idle speculation is the internet's specialist subject.

Idle speculation is the internet's specialist subject

More like the lifeblood on which it thrives

Dave

I bought a chariot from the a month ago, and it shipped with a wrong part. I emailed them asking for the correct part, which they said they will send. Has not shown up yet. I'm hoping this is not the reason for it…that would suck indeed.

Damon.

I ordered some figures by phone Thursday and they arrived Friday – one pack had to be cast up and I was warned that may have delayed things but it didn't. Rather pleased with the service.

Delta Bravo is right, Companies House is going through the motions where a company hasn't filed accounts, it'll get lifted as soon as the accounts are filed and the strike off can be suspended by a simple request and payment of a fee to Co House IIRC. If I was in charge at Foundry I'd be giving the accountant an interview without coffee over this.

Let them know about the insufficient credit notice on their web site Goonfighter. That's going to hurt business a lot more than some financial report that nobody reads till it gets posted to a forum or blog.

Dave

I don't see the insufficient credit any longer. I really hope this is just paperwork issues as Foundry paints are my favourite and I would be very distressed if those were no longer available not to mention I still have plans to collect quite a few of their ranges.

Christopher

I thought it was common knowledge the company directors are in dispute. It seems not.

I've found them to be quite open about it at shows, I'm sure this is part of it. The dispute has been going on a while, long before the move to Stoke Hall.

I'm going to stick my neck out here, I don't think it'll effect them sending out a missing bit for your chariot.

Nick,
All these facts and common sense aren't helping the idle speculation at all. :)

Nick, it might be common knowledge "over there," but I don't think we've heard anything about it "over here."

I thought it was common knowledge the company directors are in dispute. It seems not.

In dispute with whom? Each other?

And is it any business of ours? Directors of companies are in dispute with each other every day of the week. If Foundry deliver my order on time and to good quality, they could be at Stoke beating each other half to death with golf clubs as long as they don't damage the moulds and someone is left to mind the shop.

Oh, I'd still want to hear the story Goon. :-)

If you look at the page coding, the "[67.188.229.117][INSUFFICIENT CREDIT]" note at the top of the Foundry page is just text inserted at the very top of the page. For an otherwise pretty well constructed page with a lot of JS scripts, the placement seems kind of clumsily inserted just below the <body> tag. Why would anyone do that? Amateur hackers?

I, for one, no longer see the insufficient credit header. I do see the Minister of Silly Walks coming up the footpath.

Yes, in dispute with each other.

I'm sure the court case will filter into the hobby gossip at some point. But Goonfighter got it right, it isn't effecting the day to day business of selling figures to you guys, and maybe never will.

I just received an order from them last Friday.

My order came from them yesterday after having to wait a couple of weeks for it to get here from England to the Pacific Northwest here in the states. Also i was in constant email contact with Martin of WF, so it did not seem like anything was seriously wrong. Excuse me, I am going to place an order for their paints, now…

I had an order take 5 weeks to get to St. Louis from Foundry. I was in contact with Martin, also.

A FEW WORDS FROM FOUNDRY.

It's business as usual at Wargames Foundry, same as it's been for the last 30 years.
You'll notice that no one taking part in this discussion has said that they haven't received their orders: that's because we ship within one or two days of receiving them.

It's all just malicious crap. Someone has taken an image of our website and inserted words. Likewise, filing accounts or annual returns late is no big deal, you just have to pay the fines.

Diane Ansell

Attagirl!

I was worried there! Thanks for letting us know!

Thanks, Diane! I hope you find out and expose whomever did that to your website, and don't be afraid to name names. More orders coming your way from me…

Someone has taken an image of our website and inserted words.

I hope you find out and expose whomever did that to your website,

There seems to be a difference here. On the one hand Diane is saying that the image in the post above has been modified Perhaps the person who posted that image might like to comment? On the other hand Buck215 is implying that the web site was hacked.

Thanks for clearing that up and the good news re: Wargames Foundry
their service has always been very good. I hope your trouble with the "former management" is resolved successfully.

To follow up on Diane's post, the actual Companies House site lists them as Active, and they still have some time to file their accounts for the last period.

I don't think we have anything to worry about with Foundry. Looking forward to picking stuff up at Salute myself!

Diane,

Simply typing Wargames Foundry insufficient credit into Google produces large numbers of examples that repudiate your statement that someone has taken an image of the website and inserted the words.