Evesham pins bankruptcy blame on Brown

Evesham Technology fell into administration on Friday, blaming the business' troubles on the government's decision to axe the Home Computer Initiative.

As a consequence, 150 staff will lose their jobs at the Worcestershire-based company.

Evesham, which sells a range of IT equipment, including PCs, servers and storage kit, had invested heavily in the Home Computer Initiative (HCI), which allowed employees to buy PCs tax-free.

Then Chancellor Gordon Brown announced in March 2006 that he was to pull the plug on the scheme, a decision which placed Evesham in a delicate financial position.

Nevertheless, the company will continue trading following a £22m interim investment by Tahir Mohsan, who now runs PCC Technology.

A new company called GeeMore Technology will now trade as Evesham Technology.

Evesham chairman and founder Richard Austin said: "I can confirm that Evesham Technology went into administration on Friday. It's no secret that Evesham Technology has been going through some financial difficulties, having not been able to replace lost revenue of £30m which was wiped off the company's turnover following the decision made by the government to axe the HCI at short notice. We had heavily invested and allocated many resources to the HCI scheme."

Austin said that existing customers would still receive support and that warranties will "continue to be handled with Evesham's award-winning service, as before".

Tahir Mohsan was one the owners of Time Computers and its holding company, Granville Technology Group (GTG). Granville went into administration in July 2005, before collapsing leaving debts of £70m and the loss of more than 500 jobs.

Richard Thurston writes for ZDNet UK