Claire Cromie

ONE OF Tunbridge Wells' oldest businesses, Buss Murton, has denied being "saved from administration".

News reports last week sparked rumours the law firm had gone bankrupt as a result of the credit crunch.

But senior partner Alan Williams told the Kent and Sussex Courier the firm was simply "rebuilding after a bad patch".

The firm, which employs 63 people, entered into a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) with its creditors on September 18, enabling it to write off more than £1m of debt. A CVA is an agreement between a company and its creditors which allows trading to continue and the directors to retain control of the company whilst it repays its liabilities.

"Over the last year or so we have been completely restructuring the firm," said Mr Williams. Part of this has involved bringing in more investment, and it was a condition of this investment being made that a substantial part of the firm's historical debt should be written off.

"The CVA was the mechanism by which we have achieved this write-off. The amount involved is still being finalised, but it will be well in excess of £1m.

"The result is that the firm is now in a stronger financial position than it has been for many years."

The roots of Buss Murton in the town go back to 1713, but the firm has evolved through various mergers over the decades and made around £3.8m turnover last year. Despite having already made eight staff redundancies across the Tunbridge Wells and Dartford offices earlier this year, Mr Williams admitted he foresaw more in the near future.

"The head count is quite a bit lower than a year ago, all with a view to slowing down the operation and making it leaner and meaner. There are a few more that we would like to make – we don't know exact numbers yet but it will be single figures. We are in consultation at the minute."

Mr Williams said he was drafted in to shift the image of the traditionally private client firm to more corporate and commercial work.

"When I joined the firm just over a year ago, it had been suffering for some years from a burden of historical debt that had originated in a decision to enter the personal injury market in the mid-late 1990s.

"A combination of bad timing and bad management had led to substantial debts being incurred at that time, and the firm had been trying to trade out from under these debts ever since."

But he said the credit crunch also took its toll on Buss Murton: "Without the credit crunch we might have been able to attract the further investment without having to write off debt.

"However, the fall-off in particularly house conveyancing work has meant both that we did need to write off the old debt, and also that we need now to make a few more further specific redundancies related to the current economic situation." He said the firm was now in a stronger position than it had been for years and could start recruiting and rebuilding for the future. The firm's management and reporting structures have been changed: "Buss Murton has a centuries-old reputation in the Tunbridge Wells and Weald area and this gives us a further springboard for expansion."