Creditors Face Huge Losses, as Scale of Hartlepool Hairdressing Firm’s Debts Is Revealed..

Poppy's Hairdressing in Hartlepool went bust last month.

Questions Likely to Arise, as £140,584 Director’s Loan Account Emerges in Hartlepool Firm’s Liquidation...

1st June 2026

Creditors of a collapsed Hartlepool Hairdressing business are set to shoulder heavy losses after a newly filed statement of affairs document from the firms liquidators revealed the scale of the debts owed by the long-established Hartlepool business following its collapse into creditors’ voluntary liquidation last month..

Poppy's Hairdressing Hartlepool Limited, which had traded in the town’s hair and beauty sector for almost two decades, was placed into liquidation in May after the company’s financial position reportedly become unsustainable.

The Teesside & Durham Post previously reported that the company’s latest annual accounts recorded net liabilities of £157,406. However, a more detailed statement of affairs filed as part of the liquidation process now provides a much clearer breakdown of the scale of the debts owed by the Hartlepool Business and the limited assets expected to be available to creditors.

According to the document, claims against the company now total approximately £187,056 before the value of its estimated realisable assets is deducted.

The statement estimates that just £9,500 will likely be available for preferential creditors, consisting of money held in a client account. A further £1,291 held in the bank and fixtures and fittings with a book value of just £1,006, with their realisable value being recorded as uncertain.

After the expected assets are applied, the company is left with an estimated deficiency of £177,556.39 in relation to its creditors.

Employees and HMRC Among Those Owed Money

The documents show that as many as five employees are among those affected by the collapse. Preferential employee claims are listed at £5,666.86, while a further £25,921.53 is recorded as unsecured employee claims.

HM Revenue and Customs is also listed as being owed £8,943 in total, while the company records trade and expense claims of £5,360. Other liabilities include a £581 Bounce Back Loan and sums owed to suppliers, a bank and Hartlepool Borough Council.

However, the largest single entry by a considerable margin & the one likely to raise huge red flags with liquidators is a director’s loan account said to be valued at £140,584..

Director’s Loan Account Makes Up Majority of Claims

The director’s loan account reportedly represents around three-quarters of the total claims recorded against the company and more than 80 per cent of its unsecured non-preferential liabilities. A separate creditor schedule filed alongside the statement lists director Janice Auton as being owed £140,584.

A director’s loan account is a record of financial transactions between a company and one of its directors. It can show money owed by a director to a company, or money owed by the company to the director.

In this case, the amount is listed as a liability of the business, meaning the company records the money as being owed to the director.

There is nothing inherently improper about a director lending money to a company, particularly where an owner has personally supported a business during difficult trading conditions. Many small businesses rely upon directors providing funds to keep their operations running.

Nevertheless, the sheer size of the figure is likely to attract attention as the liquidation progresses with creditors reasonably wanting to understand how the balance accumulated & over what period the money was advanced as well as whether the claim is supported by the company’s financial records and what level of repayment — if any — is likely to be available once the liquidators have completed their work.

The filing itself does not establish any misconduct and no allegation of wrongdoing is being made. The responsibility for assessing the company’s records, verifying claims and determining the distribution of any available funds now rests solely with the appointed liquidators. However the figures illustrate the financial difficulties set to be faced by those owed money by the company.

Although more than £187,000 in claims are recorded across the statement of affairs, the estimated realisable assets currently amount to just £9,500, with the value of the remaining bank balance and fixtures still uncertain.

This means that a substantial proportion of the amounts owed may ultimately remain unpaid & the business set to be yet another casualty of the regions failing local economy, especially for small & new business startups.

The company’s creditors will now have to await the outcome of the liquidation process, with joint liquidators, Iain Townsend and Martyn James Pullin of FRP Advisory Trading Limited, examining the company’s affairs to determine just how, if any available funds should be distributed.