Bathroom distributor Brausch and its sister company, DHL Bathroom Supplies, have begun proceedings to be placed into liquidation.
Plans have been filed to enter Brausch and DHL Bathroom Supplies into a Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) – a process that allows a company’s directors to begin winding-up an insolvent company’s affairs voluntarily.
Begbies Traynor has been named as the appointed liquidator, who confirmed that it has been instructed to place the companies into a CVL, but said it was still in the “early stages” of the process.
A CVL is initiated by directors/shareholders when they believe their company’s financial problems have taken it beyond the point of rescue.
A Brausch employee told kbbreview that they thought the news marked a sad day for the bathroom industry: “One of the last true specialist distributors, always associated with Villeroy & Boch products, looked at affectionately by its clients and respectfully by its competitors, Brausch and her sister company DHL Bathroom Supplies, will leave a gaping hole in the upmarket bathroom sector.”
The company, which was founded in 1985, was a distributor of Villeroy & Boch, Keuco and Toto products, which it distributed throughout Southern England, Wales, the Midlands and parts of the North West.
In Brausch’s most recent financial reports, filed in September 2023, company turnover for 2022 had increased around 12%, but profits had plummeted by over 45%. In the report, the directors said that they were planning to implement a number of strategies to overcome the difficult market situation.