Digital agency BlueArc goes into voluntary administration
Digital agency BlueArc has appointed administrators, after the company “was hit hard over the past few months” by financial difficulties.
The agency has chosen to appoint SV Partners as its administrator to help restructure the company and control its costs. The first meeting of creditors is due to take place next Monday.
In a statement BlueArc conceded it had gone into voluntary administration but said it was undergoing “a proactive restructure due to the changing nature of the digital industry.”
“Our Adobe, Kentico and Umbraco divisions are all very healthy and have strong pipelines of activity, however, one of our other practices has been hard hit over the past few months, resulting unfortunately in some redundancies in this area last week,” the company in a statement. BlueArc has declined to specify which divisions had been impacted by the redundancies.
As Mumbrella reported yesterday, the company last week announced to staff a major round of redundancies and a restructure of its operations in Sydney and Melbourne.
The administrators for the company told Mumbrella they had been appointed due to concerns that the company would face financial difficulties in the future.
“The company is in voluntary administration”, said Ian Purchas, director of SV Partners, “The appointment has been made on the basis that the company would be likely to be having financial difficulties in the future and not that they were necessarily having them at the time of the appointment.”
Purchas said he was “comfortable” that Blue Arc would be able to continue to trade while in administration, and that the company was solvent at the time it was put into administration.
“I am quite comfortable that the business will continue to trade through the voluntary administration period,” he said.
“In this instance, the company was, I believe based on the information I have at the moment, a solvent company. I was appointed on the basis that the company would be facing financial difficulties in the near future.”
Yesterday, BlueArc told Mumbrella that after laying of 10 people last week there were no further redundancies planned and that “the business is trading as normal while the restructure takes place”.
Today, the company admitted the voluntary administration had already occurred at the time of giving that comment, but said the decision had been made “in order to effect this change and also to ensure the company receives the best professional help and advice in order to emerge in as strong and unaffected a position as possible.”
“Our objective is to restructure the business as quickly as possible, continue to trade as normal so as to minimise impact on clients, staff and partners during this period and emerge post the voluntary administration in a strong position.”
“We deeply appreciate the support that we have been receiving from our clients, staff and partners.”
Earlier this year, the agency spun off a separate digital arm with the launch of Ardent Digital. The company has said no clients would be moved between the two agencies, in the wake of the redundancies and restructure.
Nic Christensen
My sincere good wishes. May the blue arc scribe from the red to the black.
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How many other Digital Agencies are on the border of administration / liquidation? As digital agencies are running and managing technology, applications and platforms for their clients, clients are much more exposed to the stability of their digital agency than they are of their creative or media agencies.
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It is a shame. We value BlueArc as a competitor and believe they add a lot to the industry. Hope that they can trade out of it.
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Too many digital agencies in Sydney, especially as clients are starting to embrace the European model with in-house digital talent. In-house will never replace the quality of agency output, but outsourcing everything is silly – and expensive.
I hope Blue Arc gets over this hurdle, they build great platforms. Very professional people.
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BlueArc has been recently one our strongest partners in Australia and I’m sure they will overcome any hurdles. Their approach only shows that they are professional and serious about their business as they have always been.
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http://mumbrella.asia/2013/11/.....al-action/
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Bluearc Shanghai arm in trouble after closing business without notice.
http://mumbrella.asia/2013/11/.....al-action/
“They claim that they were not fairly compensated after being let go, were not given sufficient warning about the closure, and there remains outstanding rent on the company’s premises.
ArdentDigital’s administrator, which is handling the company’s media relations, has refuted these claims, telling Mumbrella that they do not feel staff have been unfairly treated”
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