Vivitar in administration

Press Release:

Administrators at accountants and business advisers PKF in Leicester have been called in to a company which owes over £4 million to creditors.

Eddie Kerr and Brian Hamblin from PKF Corporate Recovery have been appointed joint administrators to Vivitar SA France which has an operation based at the Meridian Business Park in Leicester.

The £23 million turnover camera equipment business employed a workforce of 14 in Leicester.  It also had a French operation, based in Paris, which served mainland Europe employing 12 staff. All have been made redundant.

The business dealt mainly in the sale of cameras and camcorders. The Vivitar-branded products were manufactured in the Far East for the European market. Its clients in the UK included Argos and Toys R Us.

Eddie Kerr, joint administrator at PKF, said:  "Unfortunately, the failure of the company's American parent has meant that the viability of Vivitar is no longer sustainable. We are exploring strategies to minimise the significant losses to the creditors, both at home and abroad."

"This is a challenging assignment because it is a French company with a significant Leicester-based operation and the final outcome to creditors will only be known when negotiations with the French authorities and employees have been finalised."

The Vivitar brand was established in 1938.  In 2006 the Vivitar Corporation was bought by Syntax Brillian in the USA.

Following the sale of the Vivitar brand, Syntax Brillian began to run into financial difficulties and resulted in the company filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in the US. 

Under the sale agreement the intellectual property and goodwill was sold, leaving Vivitar France S.A. unable to continue to trade under the Vivitar brand.