Evesham blames government for collapse

One of Britain's top OEMs has been forced to call in administrators and is blaming the government for its woes.

Evesham Technology called in the administrators on Friday afternoon and 150 staff were laid off. The company said the sudden cancellation of the Home Computing Initiative (HCI) had left it with a £30 million hole in its books and had bankrupted smaller companies.

“We had heavily invested and allocated many resources to the HCI scheme and as a result around 150 loyal and hardworking Evesham staff have also unavoidably lost their jobs," said chairman Richard Austin.

"Many of the staff had worked for Evesham Technology for a number of years and so it is a sad loss to the Evesham Technology family, and to me personally. I have built this company from nothing over a 24-year period and only wish we could have avoided this situation.”

The Home Computing Initiative was a scheme introduced in 1999 where companies got tax breaks if they bought computers for their staff.

Evesham has received a £22 million cash injection from Tahir Mohsan of PCC Technology and will continue trading and all Evesham warranties will be honoured. The Evesham brand will remain but will officially be called GeeMore Technology Ltd.