As the investigation into retail systems provider Torex Retail continues, the company’s Petroleum and Convenience (P&C) division has maintained its ‘business as usual’ stance.
The latest corporate developments have seen Keith Taylor, a turnaround expert who’s previously worked for the NHS and software group Morse, appointed as acting chief executive. The company has also said that it “remains in dialogue with its lenders who continue to be supportive of the restructuring process”.
It has emerged that it was the company’s former chief executive Neil Mitchell, appointed last September, who blew the whistle on concerns over alleged financial irregularities.
The Serious Fraud Office has searched the homes of Chris Moore, the group’s former chief executive and chairman, Rob Loosemore, former executive chairman, and Mark Woodbridge, who was finance director at Torex before the group’s merger with Isoft in 2004.
Forecourt retailers who use Torex’s Iridium epos and Prism back office systems remain upbeat about the future.
David Dovey, the Lakeside Group’s facilitator, said he had received reassurances from Torex’s P&C division and was confident that it would continue to operate regardless of what happened elsewhere in the company.
He said: “Our attitude at the moment is that they are doing a very good job for us. We don’t believe that the corporate issues are impinging on the P&C division.
"The block of the company that we’re involved with is very profitable. We feel that even in a melt-down situation it would keep going one way or another – we don’t believe we would be left in the situation of having no support.”
Cambridgeshire-based retailer Jonathan James said he’d contacted Torex on systems issues several times since the crisis broke and received normal service. “I’m fairly calm about it all at the moment,” he said.
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