Steljes Rental reborn as AV Rental Services

Pre-pack deal agreed after parent company Steljes went into administration earlier this year

The team behind Steljes Rental have bounced back with a new outfit, AV Rental Services.

Steljes Rental was liquidated on 29 September, four months after the collapse of its parent, Bagshot audiovisual distributor Steljes.

AV Rental Services managing director Andy Horn told CRN that legacy issues associated with Steljes' collapse meant Steljes Rental was unable to continue trading as the same company.

However, the team behind it have re-emerged under a different guise after agreeing to buy its equipment, intellectual property and goodwill in a pre-pack deal with the liquidator, Horn explained.

"We have taken all the team from what was Steljes Rental Limited over to AV Rental Services so as far as the clients are concerned it's the same team, products and services as Steljes Rental," he said.

"We're still working alongside SMART as a vendor - still offering, short-term, long-term and proof of conception rentals on the SMART product range - which obviously is quite key for us given the fallout between SMART and Steljes originally."

Steljes spun off its rental business as an independent company in October 2014.

According to Horn, the business entered liquidation with no debts to suppliers, so AV Rental Services will carry the same vendors as the previous company including NEC Screens, Samsung, and ProofVision.

AV Rental has also started a new division offering vendor demonstration services, which will see it store, prep and transport equipment for a vendor.

The new service has been made available by a new, larger warehouse in Uxbridge and satellite warehouses in Birmingham and Manchester.

Horn is confident that AV Rental will continue the strong financial performance seen by Steljes Rental in its last two years. For the nine months ending 30 June 2015, the most recent results on Companies House, the firm reported a revenue of £857,726 and a gross profit of £334,719.

"We had a really good year 14/15, then we had another 25 per cent growth 15/16," Horn claimed.

"We're into the new financial year now and we've had a good start again so it's going from strength to strength for us."