Ems European Limited
Ems European Limited entered creditors' voluntary liquidation (CVL) on 16 Oct 2026
Ems European Limited (company number 03518310) is a manufacturing business registered in Walsall, Walsall, incorporated on 27 Feb 1998. Leading was appointed as liquidator. The record below is built from The Gazette and Companies House and updates automatically when new notices are published.
Key facts
- Company age when the liquidation began
- 28 years and 7 months
- Incorporated 27 Feb 1998; liquidation from 16 Oct 2026
- Accounts overdue
- Due 31 May 2026, not filed
- 4 months overdue when the liquidation began
- Last accounts
- Made up to 31 Aug 2024 (micro-entity)
- Covers a period ending 2 years and 1 month before the liquidation began
- Directors
- 2 active directors
- Longest-serving appointed in 1998
- Charges
- None registered
- Appointed practitioner
- Leading
- Insolvency events on record
- 1
- Recorded 16 Oct 2026
- Liquidation
Creditors' voluntary (CVL)
Leading · West Midlands · Source: Companies House
- Since 1 Aug 1998
HOLLIS, Martin Julian
Director
British · Resident in United Kingdom
- Since 1 Aug 1998
HUGHES, Jonathan, Dr
Director
British · Resident in United Kingdom
- Resigned 28 Feb 2026
HUGHES, Colleen Annette
Secretary
Appointed 12 Mar 2013 - Resigned 31 Aug 2009
COLBORNE, Stewart Melville
Director
British · Resident in United Kingdom
Appointed 1 Jun 1999 - Resigned 24 May 1999
LAYZELL, Betty Jean Mary
Director
British
Appointed 3 Apr 1999 - Resigned 24 May 1999
LAYZELL, Raymond Francis
Director
British
Appointed 3 Apr 1999 - Resigned 3 Apr 1999
HUGHES, Jonathan, Dr
Secretary
British
Appointed 1 Aug 1998 - Resigned 12 Mar 2013
HUGHES, Jonathan, Dr
Secretary
British
Appointed 1 Aug 1998 - Resigned 3 Apr 1999
HOLLIS, Martin Julian
Director
British
Appointed 1 Aug 1998 - Resigned 3 Apr 1999
HUGHES, Jonathan, Dr
Director
British · Resident in United Kingdom
Appointed 1 Aug 1998
Showing 10 of 15 officers, current ones first. Full list on Companies House
Companies House data as of 21 Oct 2026
Registered office address
Nature of business (SIC)
- 27900 · Manufacture of other electrical equipment
Companies House data as of 21 Oct 2026
No registered charges.
Companies House data as of 21 Oct 2026
Walsall
Walsall
WS3 3XB
Procedure guide
Creditors' voluntary liquidation (CVL): how it works
A creditors' voluntary liquidation is started by a company's directors and shareholders when the business cannot pay its debts. A licensed insolvency practitioner is appointed as liquidator, trading normally stops, and the company's assets are sold to pay creditors in a fixed legal order of priority. When the work is finished the company is dissolved and removed from the register. Scotland and Northern Ireland follow a broadly similar process under their own insolvency rules.
What happens next
- Shareholders pass a special resolution to wind up the company and nominate a liquidator, and creditors are then asked, usually through deemed consent or a virtual meeting, to confirm that choice or nominate a different liquidator, in which case the creditors' choice prevails.
- The liquidator takes control, ends trading, and advertises the appointment in The Gazette, where creditors can find contact details for submitting claims.
- Assets are collected and sold, and the liquidator investigates the company's affairs and the conduct of its directors in the period before it failed.
- If enough money is recovered after costs, dividends (payouts to creditors) are paid in their statutory order of priority.
- The liquidator files a final account at Companies House, and the company is normally dissolved about three months later.
Typical duration
Often 1–2 years from the liquidator's appointment to dissolution, and longer where assets are difficult to sell or legal claims are pursued.
Creditors and suppliers
- Creditors can claim by sending a proof of debt to the liquidator, whose details appear in the Gazette notice and on the company's Companies House record.
- Before any dividend is declared, creditors are notified of a last date for proving, often by Gazette notice, and claims made later may miss that payment.
- Lenders with a fixed charge (security over specific assets such as property) are paid from those assets; liquidation costs and preferential claims such as employee wage arrears come next, ahead of most other creditors.
- For insolvencies starting since December 2020, HMRC ranks as a secondary preferential creditor for taxes it collected on the company's behalf, such as VAT, PAYE and employees' National Insurance, ahead of lenders with a floating charge (security over changing assets such as stock) and unsecured creditors.
- Suppliers whose contract kept ownership of goods until payment (a retention of title clause) may be able to reclaim identifiable, unpaid goods the company still holds by raising the claim with the liquidator.
Employees
- Staff are usually made redundant when trading stops, and can claim certain money owed from the government's Redundancy Payments Service rather than waiting for the liquidation to finish.
- Claims can cover up to eight weeks of unpaid wages, up to six weeks of holiday pay, statutory notice pay and statutory redundancy pay, all subject to a statutory weekly cap.
- Statutory redundancy pay requires at least two years' continuous service, and the right to it can be lost if no claim is made within six months of the job ending.
- Amounts above the government limits can be claimed from the liquidator; unpaid wages for the four months before the liquidation, up to £800 per employee, and all accrued holiday pay rank as preferential debts, which are paid ahead of most other claims.
- If the business is sold out of liquidation, the TUPE rules, which normally move staff to the buyer of a business, usually do not apply, so staff do not automatically transfer.
- In Northern Ireland, equivalent claims are made to the NI Redundancy Payments Service, which is part of the Department for the Economy.
Customers
- Deposits, prepayments and unused gift card balances are usually unsecured claims, so customers typically recover little or nothing through the liquidation itself.
- Credit card purchases of a single item priced over £100 and up to £30,000 may be claimed from the card provider under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.
- Debit card payments and smaller credit card purchases may be recoverable through the card provider's chargeback process, which has time limits set by the card network.
- Manufacturer guarantees usually remain valid, but warranties provided by the company itself may not be honoured unless they were separately insured.
- Customers who recover their money from a card provider cannot also claim the same amount in the liquidation.
Directors and shareholders
- Directors' powers end when the liquidator is appointed, though they must cooperate, hand over company records and help prepare a statement of the company's affairs.
- The liquidator reports on the conduct of recent directors to the Insolvency Service, which can seek disqualification for between 2 and 15 years where conduct is found unfit.
- Directors who carried on trading after they knew, or ought to have concluded, that insolvent liquidation or administration could not reasonably be avoided may be ordered to contribute personally for wrongful trading.
- Overdrawn director's loan accounts and personal guarantees given to lenders or landlords survive the liquidation and may be pursued by the liquidator or the creditor concerned.
- Anyone who was a director in the 12 months before the liquidation generally cannot reuse the company's name, or a similar one, for another business for five years, except in limited cases the law permits.
- These are general rules that apply in every case of this type. They do not suggest that any director of this company has acted improperly.
Official guidance
General information about how this type of procedure usually works, not legal or financial advice about this company or your own situation.
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- ECO2LEC Limited16 Oct 2026
- Sutton Media Limited16 Oct 2026
- Lincoln Commercial Developments Limited16 Oct 2026
- Ems European Limited16 Oct 2026
- C. Brown & Sons (Steel) Limited16 Oct 2026
- Sheep Included Ltd15 Oct 2026
- Jordans Carpentry Limited15 Oct 2026
- Westborn Ltd15 Oct 2026