With a thank you to Ian for his latest posting on The Shootist & his interesting recollections on how his business was being run.

As the new owner he was actively involved virtually every day, with his wife helping out too, we are therefore surprised to hear that he was completely unaware of how his business was operating. Whatever personal money he invested at the outset was paid back to him from income through the website and shop, these are irrefutable facts which are in the accounts.

As we said yesterday the reasons and accusations are not important at this stage, it will all come out in the fullness of time once the formal investigation begins. We are certainly not trying to score points, dodge blame, or deny Ian his voice on this website (his comments are posted here for all to see). It is absolutely true that the business was in a financial mess, that's why we got involved with and were very happy with Ian taking over (as you can see from our earlier posting in June), however events took over and now we find ourselves where we are today. Time will tell what happens but as most of us know the truth always find its way out.

As he says himself, Ian is an astute businessman, so the simple facts are, there are consequences and responsibilities to buying into a business and trading it. Ian chose to close his companies and walk away, that was his decision not ours.

We read with interest this remark about the phone bill ''Last thing, the reason no one can call Nancy or anyone at the sutlers stores is due to the fact that when I took the company over and paid off the bill from the previous owners of £3k + they were happy to continue with the phone lines. The reason they have withdrawn the lines is that they do not want to give them back to the old owners because of the debt they left with them which I paid!. There may or may not be illness but that is not the reason the lines have been cut off!''

As we mentioned yesterday the reason there is no phone, is that the power was cut off, it was a digital system that requires electricity to work it. As chance would have it we received today a further email from BT about the very debt referred to by Ian, you can read it by clicking here or above.

As you can see it is quite a difference between £879 which hasn't even been paid and over £3000 + that apparently had, so we leave it up to you to make your minds up on that one?

A final couple of notes for today, Ian Leahy knew from the outset that the Intellectual Property was not included in the sale, in fact the Intellectual Property of Sutlers Stores has been privately owned since it was first created in 1998 not 2006 as stated. The fact that he didn't own didn't mean he that he couldn't use it. Indeed he was using it, otherwise nobody would have been able to order on-line. Ian even carried out a complicated transaction with us (for which we were very grateful) and paid us out on this very basis. So there ends the discussion.

The Sutlers Stores Ltd was put into voluntary administration in June 2006, not one client was owed any money and nearly £70,000 was handed over to the administrator, all of which is a matter of public record. The transition from old to new was seamless and nobody even noticed that it had taken place.

And FINALLY he says "and they have now linked in the contact page to come to my email address, again absolving responsibility for any action or problems they have caused" As a matter of interest, the forms generated by the contact page are directed to both Ian and us.
The difference is that we will do our best to reply to them.

Read his Shootist postings

What Has Happened at The Sutlers Stores Now? July 26th 2010

We regret to inform you that the situation has taken a significant turn for the worse.

Authentic Sutlers Ltd was 'Shut Down' on July 8th by Ian Leahy; the man who introduced himself to all of you as "The New Owner" of The Sutlers Stores. As you can see from his own statements below he had not actually purchased the assets of the old company from the administrator and neither had he paid the rent or electricity for the time he was 'in charge', as a result the electricity was turned off on the 21st July, preventing us from working.

However during the period 8th to 21st July, the staff of Sutlers did all they could to make and ship as many items as possible, from the list of orders that were outstanding. They were not paid for doing this, they did it of their own free will to try and protect some of you from the effects of Ian Leahy's abrupt departure.

The reasons given by him for not proceeding are at this stage irrelevant, it is a very long and complicated story that will undoubtedly be revealed for all to see in due course.

What is important is that anyone who paid for an order between the dates of March 13th and July 8th 2010, will as we understand it, be contacted by Ian Leahy personally to discuss refunds. The money you have paid has gone to Ian Leahy's company bank account. He has all the original documentation for these orders, so he has every customers contact and payment records in order to discuss the method of refund. The former staff of Sutlers Stores had no control over these matters whatsoever.

If you need to contact Ian Leahy you can email him by clicking here to go the Contact Form


To protect your interests anybody who placed an order AFTER July 5th HAS NOT BEEN CHARGED .

THE FUTURE

26/07/10
Ladies and Gentlemen, I would sincerely hope that you can spread this message far and wide. As many of you have seen by now, the Sutlers Stores is closed. I found this out today myself, however it was inevitable. I have posted on here that I withdrew my finance and business support due to the fact that the Intellectual property rights were not included in the sale of the assets. These were kept by the previous owners Nancy and Richard Beardall, after the last time they went into administration, not this current time when I stepped in to help. For the record, the situation regarding the rent and electric are: - the landlord was owed money by the previous owners, as well as all the people that ordered piettas and other products that they were waiting for and never received. (The Pietta issue is well documented). The landlord cannot issue a new lease until the lease with the old owners is satisfied. The same thing with the electricity. Until Administration has been finalised, I could not purchase the assets, change electricity supplies or indeed have a new lease, although the landlord was fully aware we occupied the existing building and a new heads of terms had been agreed. However paying off all of their old debts and suppliers does not seem to be listed on the site!

As many of you know, I invested a lot of time and a lot of money into Sutlers to make it work, it was working. The business plan was sound and the financial situation was also sound. The problem that I now find myself is that all of the orders from 2008-march 2010 which the old company had taken money for but not fulfilled because of the difficulties they faced at the time, I now realise that my investment and time was being used to fulfil those orders which had nothing to do with me or my company, under the stewardship of Nancy.

This now leaves various issues. As you know I felt that I had been mis informed on the actual assets I was to purchase, namely the web site and domain name that you all have gone to for purchasing products, was not included in the sale, this has never been in my ownership and was never going to be. This forced me to withdraw my funding and business knowledge as the two people I was investing in did not want me to own the actual items that made the business work, which came to light recently (after 3 months of investment!). This meant the business I had was actually worth nothing at all and forced me to withdraw. I cannot legislate for all of the times people had called Nancy to chase product and were not told the correct information at the time.

It is with a huge regret that this situation has happened. It seems that most or all of the orders prior to my tenure have now been fulfilled due to my investment. However there are a lot of orders since my tenure that have not. I am still awaiting a response as to find out why so many of them have not been completed and sent from Nancy but have yet to hear, going back as far as April this year.

It seems that the opening statements on the sutlers web site, (which I clearly have no control over) seems to try and be defamitory toward me and all the help and money I invested to help them out of their 2nd administration was in vain. 

It does also infer that all orders taken after the 5th of July have not been charged so as to protect the customer. It is also shameful that they did not think of this when taking all of the money in 2008 through 2010 for orders they knew they could not fulfil! I shall put this down to just one of those experiences that you go through in business!.

I am not bitter and I have no control over the things that they may or may not post to their advantage on the website, it does however leave certain people, again, with revenue taken without product being received. What I can tell you at present is, all of the accounts for my 3 months of being in charge are to be complete towards the end of this week, early next. I will then have to take a view of what stock belongs to my company and all of the old debt that they may or may not be liaible to pay me back before I can either issue refunds to the outstading customers or not.

Once again, I got to know quite a few of you over the past three months and I know some of you have had and commented on good service and good business practice and ethics that I personally supplied, so this will be my  penultimate post on here, the last one being the decision my company will take on the outstanding orders issue, so thank you for listening, I will check back from time to time. Last thing, the reason no one can call Nancy or anyone at the sutlers stores is due to the fact that when I took the company over and paid off the bill from the previous owners of £3k + they were happy to continue with the phone lines. The reason they have withdrawn the lines is that they do not want to give them back to the old owners because of the debt they left with them which I paid!. There may or may not be illness but that is not the reason the lines have been cut off!

Well you now have the truth as I see it and they have now linked in the contact page to come to my email address, again absolving responsibility for any action or problems they have caused. i will not answer any of them, I will post my final post on here shortly and hope that the message gets through to all of you. Once again thank you very much for reading the post I hope I have set the record straight. I guess I should have listened to all of you that had been ill treated by the previous owners!

Kind regards

Ian Leahy

Read Sutlers Response

09/07/10 at 08:24 AM

Dear All,

As of 8th July 2010. The company known as Authentic Sutlers Ltd has ceased trading. Due to reasons beyond my control, the above named company has ceased trading. There will be appointed new owners of the old Sutlers stores in due course.
Kind regards

Ian Leahy

09/07/10 at 09:44 AM

Dear All,

To put things slightly clearer. As you know, I proposed to purchase the assets from the original company called Westhill Studios Ltd. I had formed two companies one called Authentic Sutlers Ltd, which helped to continue to finance and trade. I invested time and money and effort to put the record straight. I helped clear all or most of the debts that the previous company had made. I had smoothed over all suppliers and paid them off and the sutlers stores was trading again, things were working. The statement was written on the web site a couple of weeks ago by the previous owners who put the old company in administration. The administration and purchase of the assets on the old company was due to complete later this month and would complete all the hard work and effort and finance I had put in since March this year with the newly formed company, Authentic Sutlers Ltd. However there has been an issue with the due dilligence and I have become aware of something that was not included in the sale that was fundamental to the runing of the sutlers stores. This has led me not to purchase the remaining assets of the old company and withdraw my funding, help and management and I will not therefore have anything to do with Sutlers at all in any way.

I do believe though, that there are to be even more new owners. I hope that the re enactment societies that have used Sutlers in the past can see past the problems that they have experienced and try and support them in the future, whoever the new owners may be, I however will not have any connection to them. I would like to say to all of the re enactors who I have dealt with in the last 4 months that I have enjoyed and welcomed your custom and I hope I have provided service and value for money by my operating of Authentic Sutlers Ltd. I understand that this all sounds confusing but these things happen in the business world and the "second chance" I was able to provide has been stopped by issues with the previous owners that have forced me to withdraw.
Kindest regards

Ian Leahy

10/07/10 at 03:58 PM

Thank you tomketchum108, your comments are very pleasing to hear. I am however a business man that does not specialise in one particular field or industry. I am generally called in by administrators to help with struggling or failing companies to try and turn them around. That includes buying all of the assets out of administration, keeping on the staff and trying to get them back to where they should be. This occassion however, even though I have spent 4 months getting it back to some normality, has not been successful due to issues with the assets themselves from the previous owners and this has led me to withdraw and close the companies I set up to take it forward. Once again thank you for your comments.
Kind regards

Ian Leahy