More than 150 jobs were also lost when the firm ceased trading with assets sold to a London-based firm
O&H Vehicle Conversions ceased trading in February(Image: O&H Vehicle Conversions)
An East Yorkshire emergency vehicle manufacturer collapsed with debts of more than £11m and the loss of more than 150 jobs, new documents have shown. We revealed in February how Goole-based O&H Vehicle Conversions had ceased trading after spending more than 37 years building ambulances and other emergency vehicles from its Larsen Road factory.
Since 1988, the manufacturer specialised in receiving shell vehicles from customers, then transforming them into a range of emergency vehicles, primarily ambulances. The firm had enlisted business advisors in attempts to strike an eleventh hour deal to save the business and scores of jobs – but no offers materialised which could keep it running and the business shut up shop for good in February.
Now documents filed by administrators at BDO LLP reveal how the business had been loss-making for five years, and how it was placed into administration after its main shareholder’s appetite to give further support was “exhausted”. Unsecured creditors are owed an estimated £6.5m, but the report says they won’t see a penny.
Meanwhile, 158 people employed at the firm were made redundant when the company collapsed – and they are owed £1.189m, but it isn’t yet known how much they will get. There are several types of creditors – secured, which includes main shareholders; preferential, which includes employees and HMRC, and unsecured, which include trade creditors and suppliers.
In all, the Goole firm has estimated debts of £11.142m, including £10.29m owed to all levels of creditors. Trade creditors are owed £2.9m and HMRC is estimated to be owed £835,000.
The report by the three joint administrators at business advisory firm BDO LLP outlines the chain of events leading to O&H Conversions’ failure, telling how an accelerated sale process was launched to try to find a new owner. In total, 31 potential interested parties were contacted, three of which expressed an interest in buying the business or certain assets.
In the end, only one was workable, but it was only for certain assets of the company and it meant the company’s business had to cease trading. The deal to sell the assets of O&H was struck on February 20, and saw London firm Trek Parts Limited buy those assets for £450,000.
The manufacturer had been bought by main shareholder Portus Felix in August 2019, but had been loss making since 2021, carrying out a number of initiatives to shore up the business, including a restructuring exercise in 2024 – a move which saw Portus Felix agree to waive loans to the company of £11.6m, including interest, and transferring some of its shareholding to the management team. A restructuring of senior management was also carried out, along with a rebrand.
Management blamed the consistent losses on insufficient volumes and “a low margin contract with an NHS Ambulance Service due to pricing structures”. Those losses were previously funded through support from Portus Felix including cash injections, the “debt forgiveness” and the sale and leaseback of the company’s premises.
The firm’s decline continued into 2026 – and some suppliers temporarily ceased to supply, causing disruption to production. And when directors realised they needed around £2m in further funding this summer, they concluded they couldn’t carry on trading.
The report says: “The company was loss making and, absent additional financial support from external sources to release critical payments, was unable to trade solvently and pay its liabilities as and when they fell due. The shareholder was not in a position to provide further additional funding. The secured creditor confirmed that it could not provide additional funding, nor was it possible to raise further debt given the financial position of the company.
“It is expected that there will be a return to HMRC as secondary preferential creditors, however the quantum and timing of such a return is uncertain at present and will be dependent on the final level of asset realisations, quantum of preferential employee claims and costs of the administration.
“A return to the secured creditor Portus Felix Limited and preferential creditors is expected by virtue of a sale of certain assets to a purchaser, as well as the realisation of other assets.
“Based on current information, the company has insufficient property to enable a distribution to be made to unsecured creditors.”
Get all the latest headlines sent straight to your inbox for free with our newsletter. You can stay up to date with all the breaking news and top stories as they happen in Hull and East Yorkshire by clicking this link .
To find planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more, visit the Public Notices Portal .