Latest news with #AndrewEgan
News.com.au
23-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Heartbroken': Brutal text sent to staff as company collapses
EXCLUSIVE About 140 people across Australia have been immediately sacked following the sudden collapse of Australia's largest distributor of second-hand office furniture. Staff at furniture company Egans received a text message on Friday morning telling them to attend a compulsory all-staff meeting, where they were told they no longer had jobs. 'Notice of important company announcement,' the text message read. 'Do not go to job site first.' In a statement to Director Andrew Egan said the company had faced 'pervasive cost increases' and a 'revenue slump' which was affecting 'every business in Australia'. The company has staff across NSW, Victoria and South Australia. 'Egans is a family business that has been developing a worlds (sic) best practice circular economy model for 30 years,' Mr Egan said in his statement. 'Universities and corporations across Australia have adopted our model and are devastated by todays news. 'Our staff have worked on this data-backed, fully resolved model for many decades. Like us, they are heartbroken. Mr Egan said that his company had saved two million kilograms of office furniture through their approach. 'Given there is no alternate model in the market, this is as difficult for our customers as it is for our staff. 'Our thoughts go out to the 140 staff and their families who are affected by this.' Staff had no warning about the collapse and were only first told about the decision to close the business during the all-staff meeting. Egans' main company website has already been scrubbed from the internet. Egans provided office fit-outs, disposal, storage and transportation of office furniture. It provided office equipment for the likes of the SA Government, the Fair Work Ombudsman and Adelaide University.
Scotsman
11-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Firm behind collapsed performing arts college was being shut down by Irish courts 3 months ago
The company, which had bought the Scottish Institute of Theatre and Drama, is being struck off in the Irish courts. Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The Irish company behind a Scottish theatre school that suddenly fell into liquidation, leaving students stranded, was being wound up by Dublin courts three months ago. Official documents from the Irish companies register show Silver Rock Studios, which bought out the Scottish Institute of Theatre and Drama a year ago, received an "involuntary strike off order" in February. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Scottish Institute moved to a new campus in Livingston last year. | Scotsman The Irish firm, headed by Andrew Egan, the sole director of the Scottish Institute, has also made no progress on an ambitious plan to create a film studio in rural Ireland - billed as one of the biggest in Europe. Locals have claimed the site, in the town of Nenagh, County Tipperary, is dormant. The Scottish Institute in Livingston closed its doors on Wednesday without any notice for staff or students. Parents of students enrolled on degree courses warned they had been left in limbo, saying their children were 'devastated'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A document published on the site of the Companies Registration Office (CRO), the Irish equivalent of Companies House, listed Silver Rock Studios among firms that were to be struck off after failing to file an annual return. They were given 28 days to comply. However, no such document from Silver Rock appears to have been filed on the CRO website. Contemporary dancers at The Scottish Institute of Theatre, Dance, Film and Television The site said: 'The companies mentioned herein have failed to file an annual return as required by section 343 companies act 2014. Notice is hereby given pursuant to section 730(1) of the Companies Act 2014 that at the expiration of 28 days from the date of the notice specified in respect of each company, the name of the company mentioned herein will, unless all outstanding returns are delivered to the registrar, be struck off the register, and the company will be dissolved.' The institute moved last year from Edinburgh to a new campus in Livingston in a renovated former building of a tax office after being taken over by Silver Rock. At the launch of the new campus in April last year, Mr Egan said the institution would undergo a 'pivotal expansion'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He said: 'We aspire to nurture a hub that champions creativity, entrepreneurship, and learning to inspire the next generation of talent.' Despite receiving the go ahead from planners in 2021, it is understood that ground has not been broke on the site in Nenagh. Silver Rock's X profile still claims it is due to open this year. The proposals claimed up to 2,000 people would be employed by the 190,000sqft film studios within two years of it opening. Silver Rock's website claims the Irish film studios would be 'equipped with sound stages and the most advanced film and TV technology in existence globally'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Formerly known as the MGA Academy of Performing Arts, the institute was Scotland's only fully-accredited college with the UK's Council for Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre and offered degree level qualifications, some through its partner Bath Spa University in England. As recently as January, it announced plans to invest in new student housing on the site.
