COMPANIES owed money by the British Ceramic Tile (BCT) business have been paid about a penny in the pound.

The BCT company was one of the biggest employers in Teignbridge with a 400,000 sq ft factory in Heathfield, and collapsed in January 2019 with massive debts and the loss of some 400 jobs.

The business went into administration, and the final report has just been filed with Companies House.

Documents reveal that one secured creditor was owed some £33m and suffered a significant shortfall in this matter.

Preferential creditors’ claims were agreed in the sum of £97,035 and were paid in full.

Elsewhere, a dividend of just 1.2p in the pound was paid to unsecured creditors in December 2021 – among them Teignbridge companies Sibelco, which supplied clay to the tile company, and Graham Distribution – and to employees in January this year.

The value of the prescribed part available to unsecured creditors was £358,625.67. A total of 500 creditors lodged claims amounting to £26,155,244. Distribution costs amounted to £62,286 and administrators’ fees were £1,184,068 plus VAT.