HAMPSHIRE — Premier Group Recruitment entered administration in September owing £2.9 million, including £647,000 to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). HMRC had begun enforcement proceedings against the company before it entered administration.

Three days after the administration began, the company’s assets were acquired by a new entity, PGGBR Ltd, founded by Andrew Woosnam, who had been Premier Group’s 99% shareholder. Woosnam made an initial £10,000 payment and agreed to pay a further £600,000 in monthly instalments of £25,000 over two years to complete the acquisition.

However, PGGBR Ltd has fallen behind on the agreed payment plan. According to administrators Rob Keyes and David Taylor of KRE Corporate Recovery, the new company faced startup costs and lower-than-expected turnover, leading to delays in meeting its contractual obligations. Woosnam has since set up a monthly standing order payment toward the acquisition contract.

Administrators also noted that Woosnam’s outstanding £1.2 million director’s loan from Premier Group remains unpaid. They previously estimated they would recover about half of that sum. Administrators hold a fixed charge against Woosnam’s matrimonial property and believe sufficient equity exists to recover the full contractual amount if necessary.

Since 2022, Woosnam had taken dividends totaling almost £2 million from Premier Group. Administrators rejected a competing offer for the business that included an initial cash payment of £321,000 and a potential royalty worth an additional £110,000.

PGGBR Ltd has announced an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas for consultants who hit their targets, marketed as the “END OF YEAR TRIP 2026,” on its LinkedIn page. The company is currently trading on a break-even basis, and its obligations to HMRC and other creditors are up to date.

Louise Gracia, professor of accounting at Warwick Business School, said: "Cases like Premier Group, where millions are extracted before insolvency, are much harder to justify morally, even if they are legal. It raises concerns around whether the law is drawing the line in the right place, allowing liabilities to be quietly shed while assets are retained, with the taxpayer quietly absorbing the difference." HMRC has estimated that phoenixism—where a new company emerges from the assets of a failed predecessor—accounted for approximately 22% of the £3.8 billion in tax losses reported in 2022–2023.