<\/p>\n
\n Oxford Woodburners had traded from Oxford Road in Cowley for 14 years, delivering and installing a wide variety of woodburning stoves in Oxfordshire and its surrounding counties.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, at the end of last year the company voted to be \u201cwound up voluntarily\u201d with a liquidator being appointed.\n<\/p>\n
\n The associated documents were published on Companies House in January.\n<\/p>\n
\n READ MORE: UK battery manufacturer set to fold after \u00a32.5 million deal collapse\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cReally, we closed for personal reasons,\u201d said Kit Sandham, founder of the business, who confirmed it is no longer trading despite the website being operational.\n<\/p>\n
\n He explained that his best friend \u2013 who had run the business with him \u2013 had died.\n<\/p>\n
\n Following the decision to close the company, HMRC was informed and quickly sent debt collectors around, according to Mr Sandham.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cHMRC came in heavy and we had to liquidate the company.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Oxford Woodburners was based on Oxford Road in Cowley (Image: Google Maps)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI thought they might give me a bit of time but no. They sent debt collectors which took everything.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Companies House documents showed the business owed \u00a316,000 in unpaid Corporation Tax.\n<\/p>\n
\n Although, personal reasons were cited as the most important factor, other elements also played a part in the closure including \u201cmisinformation\u201d about woodburning stoves.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Sandham said: \u201cThere is so much misinformation about them. People were comparing them to diesel trucks which is insane.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere is a lot of poor research about them.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n He added that official organisations had put out exaggerated warnings about stoves which was demotivating and he admitted the wood burner industry is in decline.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think we were probably heading out of this business anyway,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n READ MORE: UK car manufacturer collapses with employees made redundant\n<\/p>\n
\n He added that times of financial difficulty, like the present day, often sees the end of \u2018zombie businesses\u2019, organisations that make just enough money to continue operating.\n<\/p>\n
\n On the Government website, it says that stove maintenance is important for health including regularly cleaning it and getting it serviced once every year.\n<\/p>\n
\n In addition, Mr Sandham said the introduction of low traffic neighbourhoods in and around Oxford had disrupted their business making travel harder.\n<\/p>\n
\n Also, he said the wider UK business landscape is \u201cnot good\u201d, although that isn’t stopping him setting up a new electrical company that he is “confident” in.\n<\/p>\n
\n Prince Michael of Kent visiting Betley Studios \/ The Little Car Compnay (Image: BicesterHeritage)\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Sandham\u2019s company is not the only one to have gone under in recent months.\n<\/p>\n
\n Administrators were appointed for Bicester-based Hedley Studios Ltd on March 4, with the Daily Express reporting the majority of its employees have been made redundant.\n<\/p>\n
\n Witney-based company Christy & Co. Limited, which has made hats for more than 250 years was recently saved from liquidation by London hatmaker Laird Hatters.\n<\/p>\n
\n Heimdal Limited, which had been trading from the West Oxfordshire Business Park in Carterton, passed a resolution to wind up voluntarily on March 13.\n<\/p>\n
#woodburner #business #slams #misinformation #liquidation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oxford Woodburners had traded from Oxford Road in Cowley for 14 years, delivering and installing a wide variety of woodburning stoves in Oxfordshire and its surrounding counties. However, at the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finance-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}