21 jobs saved at Salford Quays data hosting firm

Twenty-one jobs at a data hosting and processing company have been saved after Alphadex Limited was sold out of administration.

The sale of the firm was announced by Jason Elliott and Craig Johns, joint administrators of business recovery specialists Cowgill Holloway Business Recovery LLP.

Administrators were appointed over the businesses to handle a sale out of administration to Manchester based iRack Limited.

Established since 2009, the business which operates from offices in Salford Quays, hit cashflow problems after the sudden loss of contracts caused by a cyber-attack in late 2013 and early 2014, in addition a major client’s contract ended in February of last year.

The new owners, iRack Limited, intend to invest heavily in updating software, hardware, network and infrastructure to ensure in future, the company is better placed to handle such an event. iRack Limited was advised by Shoosmiths’ Manchester team in respect of the purchase.

Jason Elliott, partner at Cowgill Holloway Business Recovery, said: “Alphadex is a fundamentally sound business with an excellent product range, but a recent sustained cyber-attack on the company servers and issues ultimately beyond its control meant a number of key customers were unfortunately lost, hitting the company disproportionately hard.

“After a short period of marketing we were able to generate several expressions of interest and three firm offers which ultimately resulted in a successful sale of the business.

“Due to the sector in which it operates continuity of service is of paramount importance and by ensuring that there was no disruption during the marketing period we were able to maintain goodwill and preserve the value to any prospective purchasers. We were particularly pleased that we were able to save all 21 jobs.”