The Ladder Group: Payment recovered after acquisition of key customer

Background:

Founder and CEO of the Ladder Group, Daniel Ball, got in touch with Hilton-Baird Collection Services’ team for recovery support when a substantial customer invoice remained outstanding, despite the business’s efforts to obtain payment.

With offices in London, New York and Mumbai, The Ladder Group partners with organisations to achieve their most ambitious future talent and social mobility objectives.

The challenge:

After successfully delivering projects worth £17,600, The Ladder Group found themselves in a frustratingly common situation. They had agreed a manageable payment schedule with the customer of £2,300 per instalment. Whilst the first payment arrived as planned, the circumstances then abruptly changed.

A corporate acquisition saw their customer become part of a US group, bringing new management and, crucially, a change in attitude toward existing obligations. The replacement contact attempted to unilaterally change the agreed terms, offering a settlement of only 50% of the outstanding balance.

Debt recovery solution:

Understandably, this offer was unacceptable and, rather than wasting valuable resources chasing payment, Daniel Ball contacted Hilton-Baird’s team to assist, stating that the Ladder Group would like to recover the balance in full.

Hilton-Baird’s team immediately established direct communication with the customer’s new decision-makers, making it clear that the original agreement remained legally binding, despite the acquisition and that no legitimate grounds existed for a reduced settlement.

Legal proceedings were commenced and, when the customer attempted a second offer of around £10,000, this too was firmly rejected. Hilton-Baird’s team maintained professional but persistent pressure, working closely with the solicitors, to emphasise that corporate restructuring doesn’t void existing contractual obligations.

The result:

A third offer by the customer was rejected, and payment of 90% of the full outstanding amount was secured.

Daniel comments: “I was really impressed with the Hilton-Baird team, particularly Kelly who was fantastic through this process.” He adds “Great communication, a friendly attitude and always super responsive, Kelly secured payment, plus statutory interest. Outsourcing the collection of this debt took a huge pressure off my team and I would urge any business faced with a similar challenge to consider using Hilton-Baird’s debt recovery expertise to get the right result.”