Business & Finance
Recruiter places ‘phoenix’ firm into liquidation months after buyback erased millions in debt
Andrew Woosnam put his new company PGGBR Ltd into voluntary liquidation after falling behind on payments to purchase the assets of his previous debt-laden firm.
The short version
- Andrew Woosnam, owner of Premier Group Recruitment, has placed his successor company, PGGBR Ltd, into voluntary liquidation.
- The move comes after PGGBR fell behind on its £25,000 monthly instalment payments to buy back the assets of Premier, which had entered administration in 2025 owing £2.9 million.
- At least half of the staff at the new firm were made redundant in July, with reports emerging that they went unpaid.
Key facts
- Premier Group Recruitment entered administration in September 2025 owing £2.9 million, which included £647,000 to HM Revenue and Customs.[The Guardian]
- Three days after Premier's administration began, its assets were bought by PGGBR Ltd, a new firm founded by Premier's 99% shareholder Andrew Woosnam, for an initial £10,000 and a promise of £600,000 in monthly instalments.[The Guardian]
- Companies House filings show that PGGBR appointed a voluntary liquidator after the company struggled to make the agreed-upon repayments.[The Guardian]
- Woosnam previously drew a £1.2 million director's loan from Premier and took dividends totalling nearly £2 million from the company since 2022.[The Guardian]
- Academic research has linked connected-party buybacks involving deferred payments to higher insolvency failure rates, such as a 2014 study showing failure rates rise from 15% to 37% when deferred consideration is introduced.[The Guardian]
What remains uncertain
- Industry sources alleged that staff affected by July redundancies were not paid, and that Woosnam plans to launch another recruitment firm using a business renamed PGREC in June.[The Guardian]