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Premier Group Recruitment entered administration with £2.9 million in debts. Three days later, its former majority shareholder acquired the assets through a new company — reigniting the debate over ‘phoenixism’ in UK corporate law.
Premier Group Recruitment, a UK staffing company focused on technology, creative and sales sectors, entered administration on 2 September 2025 with total debts of £2.9 million. The largest single creditor was HM Revenue and Customs, owed £647,000, which had already launched enforcement proceedings before the collapse.
Three days later, the company’s assets were acquired by PGGBR Ltd — a newly formed entity founded by Andrew Woosnam, Premier’s 99% shareholder. The initial cash payment was £10,000, with monthly installments of £25,000 through September 2027 bringing the nominal total to £610,000. Crucially, those future payments are expected to come from the new company’s own revenues, meaning the business effectively finances its own acquisition from post-sale cash flow.
A Higher Bid Was Rejected
According to the administrators’ report by KRE Corporate Recovery, an unnamed second bidder offered £321,000 upfront plus royalty payments estimated at £110,000. That offer was turned down in favor of Woosnam’s deal. The reasoning has not been publicly detailed.
The financial history adds further context. Premier’s annual reports for 2022 and 2023 show £1.95 million in combined dividends paid to shareholders. Woosnam also held a director’s loan of £1.2 million from Premier, which grew by £265,000 after the 2024 financial year — a period in which the company’s own filings acknowledged “substantial doubt about [its] ability to meet its obligations.” In the context of the broader economic pressures facing the UK, every pound HMRC cannot recover from insolvent companies must be compensated for elsewhere in the system.
Phoenixism: An £836 Million Problem
The transaction is a textbook example of ‘phoenixism’ — the practice of directors establishing a new entity to acquire a failed company’s assets, shedding liabilities in the process. The practice is not inherently illegal. But according to HMRC’s 2023–24 annual report, tax losses from phoenixism reached £836 million in 2022–23 alone — 45% above earlier estimates — accounting for roughly a fifth of all uncollected tax debts. A separate National Audit Office report found total tax evasion losses at £5.5 billion that year, with 81% tied to small businesses.
Enforcement remains strikingly limited. Over a five-year period, the Insolvency Service disqualified just seven directors specifically for phoenixism. Criminal prosecutions for tax evasion halved between 2018–19 and 2023–24. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has pledged joint action by HMRC, Companies House and the Insolvency Service, and the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 gave Companies House new powers to verify director identities. Yet critics, including the head of the National Audit Office, argue the response remains inadequate given the scale of the problem.
What made Premier’s case particularly visible was the aftermath. Weeks after shedding £2.9 million in debts, the reconstituted company posted on LinkedIn promoting an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas for staff who hit their 2026 targets. While performance incentives are standard in the competitive global recruitment industry, the optics of luxury rewards emerging from a fresh insolvency drew immediate public scrutiny.
No allegation of illegality has been made. Woosnam’s acquisition operates within the current legal framework — and that is precisely the point. As long as phoenixism remains this straightforward, the question is not whether individual cases are lawful, but whether the framework itself is fit for purpose.
Sources: The Guardian
