The hosting company are posting news here: Technical Announcements, and the status is here: PurplePaw Support – Network Status, not that these are much help to you.

Contact me via my Wibsite e-mail if you need any cartoons urgently, or there are some on this site.

For the time being you can contact me via my wibsite e-mail: dave at wibsite dot com.

[Technical talk]It’s all a bit worrying as I have no ftp access to the old server, so I’m having to do things without a complete backup. This could be a big mistake, but it appears I have no option (apart from doing nothing, which is unacceptable when people have paid me money to use the site). I have a recent backup of the Cartoon Blog WordPress database, but I have no idea what to do with it. When I have some time I will spend a few days looking into it. Unfortunately these things do usually take me a few days (literally).

Continued apologies. Do contact me at the address given via the sidebar link if you need cartoons, advice etc.

Here are the company ‘appointments’:

ENC SHOP MANAGEMENT CO.
Company Number: FC028292
SECRETARY: BREWER, SANDRA K
DIRECTOR: BREWER, J MARK
DIRECTOR: BREWER, PHILIP W

DURHAM CATHEDERAL SHOP MANAGEMENT CO.
Company Number: FC028290
SECRETARY: BREWER, SANDRA K
DIRECTOR: BREWER, J MARK
DIRECTOR: BREWER, PHILIP W

CHICHESTER SHOP MANAGEMENT CO.
Company Number: FC028291
SECRETARY: BREWER, SANDRA K
DIRECTOR: BREWER, J MARK
DIRECTOR: BREWER, PHILIP W

For comparison, the ‘bankrupt’ Saint Stephen the Great:

SAINT STEPHEN THE GREAT
Company Number: 06110519
DIRECTOR: BREWER, JOHN MARK
DIRECTOR: BREWER, KAREN ELLEN
DIRECTOR: BREWER, SANDRA KAY

It is, quite blatantly the same people.

Dyfrig made some really useful extra points on my site before it died mid-morning. Here are some of them:

The company that’s filed for bankruptcy in the US is SSG-LLC. The first thing to note is that companies go bankrupt in America – in the UK, individuals go bankrupt, companies go into liquidation. The Chapter 11 filing protects the American company in America and under any contracts with people or bodies outside America which are expressed to be under American law. So only if an SPCK worker’s contract is expressed to be with SSG-LLC will that person be affected by the change in employment. …

In order to trade in England & Wales, an organisation must either be a limited company (this includes charities that are limited by guarantee) or a limited liability partnership (it could be an unlimited partnership, but this is unlikely). Overseas companies therefore normally create a company in England & Wales. Saint Stephen the Great is a registered company in Poole. As at today, June 10th, it is neither in adminstration nor liquidation. Just because SSG-LLC is in bankruptcy in the US doesn’t mean that SSG Ltd in Poole is subject to the same protection, because it’s a separate legal entity from SSG-LLC.

Also:

On the whole St Stephen the Great Ltd / SSG-LLC issue, there is indeed only one company with that name registered in England & Wales, and that company is NOT in administration according to Companies House. Something called SSG LLC may have applied for Chapter 11 in the States, but I’m not clear how that can apply to an English-registered company. (ENC is actually registered with an “FC” number, which means it’s a foreign company – perhaps ENC has been registered in England and THEN gone into Chapter 11 in the States?).

The Trust’s website purports that there is a company called Saint Stephen the Great LLC, but that is incorrect, as companies is England & Wales cannot have that suffix – they must carry “Ltd” (or “Cyf”). The Trust may hold itself out as “SSG LLC” but that is not its identity and the legally registered company is Saint Stephen the Great Ltd, a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity.

I spoke to Alison on the phone a short time ago. She thanks everyone for their thoughts and prayers.

The fallout from SSG’s ‘bankruptcy’ continues. Phil Groom asks whether their bankruptcy claim is legitimate.

A commenter on Phil Groom’s site says that the new company ENC Management ‘consists of the Brewer brothers and one of their wives’. Also ‘the two independent shops have been told to deposit takings in a new bank account in the name of Saint Stephen the Great Charitable Trust’.

Phil asks whether ‘filing for bankruptcy in the USA can, in any case, apply to SSG as a UK registered charity’. A good question.

If I have the date right Alison Speddings’ tribunal case begins today in Sheffield. All best wishes to you Alison.

The Chester shop is closed (above). I am also told that the Newcastle shop is closed. Please update me as to the status of any others.

If you can help get the word out about this then please do. The world needs to hear.

[Thanks to Peter for the photo]

I did a backup of my blog database as soon as the site came back in case there are any further problems.

All being well I will transfer the Feedburner feed back over to the usual blog once things have stabilised a bit so everyone subscribed to that should begin to get updates from there once again. There may be a delay and some turbulence.

Once again – I’m so sorry about all this.

Update: The latest news from my web host is here.

SSG (St Stephen the Great), owners of the former SPCK chain of bookshops have filed for bankruptcy.

The following e-mail was sent to most if not all of the former SPCK shops by Mark Brewer:

SSG (St Stephen the Great – limited liability company) has been terminated as the trading company to operate the bookshops formerly known as SPCK Bookshops.

Additionally, SSG-LLC has been placed into reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

SSG-LLC is not authorized to employ any person or incur any debt. With immediate effect, SSG-LLC payroll, redundancy and other such obligations will only be payable through the bankruptcy court. SSG-LLC employees of record as of 4 June 2008 will receive further notification directly from the bankruptcy court about how to submit a claim.

The bookshops will now be operated by ENC Management Company. Former employees of SSG-LLC are invited to apply for a position with ENC Management Company. If you wish to apply, please reply to this email so indicating.

The following message is being returned when e-mail is sent to the spckonline ‘vendor accounts’ address.

SSG (St Stephen the Great), the charitable trading company conducting
business at the former SPCK Bookshops, has filed for protection from
its creditors under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in
Houston, Texas.

The case number is 08-33689-H1 11.

This case is recorded in England and accordingly, all adverse actions
and all actions in either the U.S. or the U.K. purporting to affect
the property or rights or liabilities of SSG are prohibited in
accordance with the automatic stay provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy
Code. Similarly, efforts to collect an alleged debt from SSG are
subject to the automatic stay provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Saint Stephen the Great LLC

I have been told that a number of suppliers are owed significant sums of money.

New companies have been set up to run the shops. The Durham Shop is now ‘Durham Cathedral Shop Management Co’, Chichester is ‘Chichester Shop Management Co’ (both can be found on the Companies House website). An e-mail from Phil Brewer to one of the shops said that the shops are now run by ‘ENC management company‘.

Phil Groom sent me this via the comments on my backup site (Thanks Phil):

Anne, one of my respondents, says:

‘… Chapter 11 bankruptcy is often considered a “milder” form of bankruptcy than other filing methods that are available. It generally signals that a business wants protection from its creditors while re-organizing itself, working out payment methods, and so forth. It also often means that the people operating the business intend for it to continue to exist. More severe forms involve the shutting down of a business and the liquidation of its remaining assets to pay off creditors.’

(Thanks to Phelim for the tip about the ‘vendor accounts’ e-mail.)

Continued apologies.

The shops are now apparently now run by a new company called ‘ENC management company’. Staff in the Chester shop shop were e-mailed to inform them that they had to apply for their own jobs, but this might now have been reversed. Keep an eye on Phil’s blog.