THE bankruptcy of Tunbridge Wells cold storage firm ICA Group left creditors almost 4million worse off, company documents have revealed.
Headquartered on Mount Ephraim in Tunbridge Wells, but with its main centre of operations in Paddock Wood, the family-run company had a legacy dating back over a century.
It went into administration in March, and attempts to rescue the business were unsuccessful, resulting in the loss of 74 jobs.
Documents fi led at Companies House show the firm went bust owing creditors around £4million.
Administrators FRP Advisory have since managed to find £437,000 worth of assets to repay some of the unsecured creditors, however this still leaves a significant shortfall.
A total of 310 companies have been left out of pocket by the collapse of ICA.
The worst affected company in Kent was TLC Industrial Roofing and Cladding in Landway, near Lenham, owed £114,000 for work undertaken at a cold storage unit
in Sittingbourne.
Joint administrator Philip Armstrong said it was ‘hugely regrettable’ that a business with a
loyal Kent customer base has been forced to close ‘following several years of unsustainable cash-flow pressures’.
He added that the administrator will continue to realise the assets of the business ‘in the interests of the creditors’.
Founded in Five Oak Green in 1901 by Harry Lawrence, the company has passed down from generation to generation, with his great-great grandson, Andrew  Wills, taking over as the final Managing Director in 2004.
