Collapsed recycling company owner apologises to charities and schools owed thousands of pounds

A clothing recycling company in Bristol went into liquidation owing more than £500k to organisations including charities, schools and community groups.

Haydn Piper, the director and secretary of Bristol Recyclers Textiles Ltd (BTR), has apologised for the losses incurred following the collapse of the company in 2019.

The family-run firm, set up in 1972, purchased unsellable donations from charity shops and provided clothing banks to organisations like schools and scout groups.

Items received were taken to the company’s sorting bases in St Philip’s before being packaged and sold for re-use in countries like Benin, Kenya and Ghana in Africa.

But in November, 2019, a decision was made to wind up the company with £517,533 owed to 126 organisations.

Joint liquidators were appointed to raise money by selling the firm’s assets.

But in a report last month, they said that while dividends would likely be paid to former employees for redundancies claims, unpaid wages and holiday pay, it was anticipated there will not be enough cash to pay remaining unsecured creditors.

They included St Peter’s Hospice, owed £58,305, Trussell Trust, owed £7,111 and Wiltshire Air Ambulance, owed £1,260.

BristolWorld approached Mr Piper, who is also director of another clothing recycling company called C&G Collection Ltd, set up a year before BTR went into liquidation.

Asked for his message to unsecured creditors of BTR, Mr Piper said: “I take complete responsibility for what transpired and offer my most sincere apologies for the losses they have incurred, and for any stress and upset it may have caused.”

He said BTR was an ‘excellent service provider and local employer’ which fell into financial troubles.

He said: “Many companies within the textile industry liquidated around this time, probably due to the highly complex and volatile nature of the business.

“It is one of the few industries where you pay a fixed price for a bag of goods that could end up having little or no worth and you must absorb this cost.

“Meanwhile you have to support an infrastructure to include a fleet of vehicles, a processing factory, staff costs and insurance costs, all of which are not insignificant overheads meaning turnover for textile recycling businesses are high, but profits are not always reflective of the turnover.

“The decision to liquidate BTR was not taken lightly and was done with a heavy heart.”

The full list of creditors and how much they were owed at the time the company went into liquidation in 2019 is available on Companies House.

Here we publish a sample including schools, community groups and charities:

One of them, Brandon Trust, was owed money through three charity shops in Gloucester Road, Whiteladies Road and Cotham Hill.

A spokesperson from the Patchway-based charity, which provides support for people with learning disabilities, said: “Sadly, we can confirm that we haven’t been paid the outstanding amount of £1,600 due to us from Bristol Textile Recyclers Ltd.

“This is extremely disappointing because all profits made in our charity shops, directly benefit people with a learning disability, autism or both.”

Bristol and Wales Cat Rescue, based in Nailsea, was owed £175.50.

Margaret Green, from the charity, said: “We didn’t recover the money - we were sent a paper copy of everything he owed at the time, by the liquidators, and we were very small fry compared with most.

“We didn’t take it any further - it was annoying but not worth pursuing.”

Thornbury-based Multiple Sclerosis Peoples Help charity was owed £186.50.

Trustee Roger Wall said: “Every penny to us is something - but we had to let it go as we are very busy and haven’t got the time to be chasing it up.”

Following the collapse of BTR, Mr Piper runs Bristol-based C&G Collection, which he says ‘represents a much simpler business model without the same crippling overheads that resulted in the decline of BTR Ltd’.

He added that he had been able to employ staff who lost their jobs from BTR and provide a source of income generation again for charities, schools and other fundraising organisations.