Edinburgh design agency closes with 20 jobs axed

Navyblue, which had offices in Edinburgh and London as well an outpost in Oman, confirmed that it would shut its doors in the UK after 17 years of trading, despite the firm’s directors having invested an undisclosed sum in the business over the past year in an effort to keep it afloat.

Douglas Alexander, the co-founder and managing director of Navyblue’s Edinburgh office, surprised the industry when he left the consultancy at the start of the month.

Geoff Nicol, who founded the agency with Alexander in 1993, said in a statement: “Despite continued support from our bankers to address current economic and trading pressures, our recent ‘internal’ problems have proved to be too difficult to overcome.

“Although we have made significant personal commitments and investment recently, on the advice of our accountants, we have regretfully decided that we must put our business into voluntary liquidation.”

Nicol added that Navyblue would return in some guise in the near future. He said: “We are deeply saddened that after 17 years of exemplary trading, the business will no longer exist as it stands today. However, the core Navyblue strategy and design teams, in both Edinburgh and London, will continue as a team. We are extremely excited at the prospects and opportunities that lie ahead; and would like to reassure our clients of our continued and unwavering support.”

But Bernie Shaw Binns, a director and shareholder of the firm, insisted that the closure was “categorically not a pre-pack”, which allows directors to essentially restart the firm without its liabilities to creditors and staff.

He said: “If this was a pre-pack we would have done it a long time ago and we would have had a nice set of offices to move into today.

“In the last 12 months, directors have personally invested in the company, in hard cash and various guarantees against other creditors. We really tried to stick in and protect the staff all the way through to a point it just really wasn’t sustainable. It is with great regret we had to do it,” he added.

Navyblue had about 20 staff in both London and Edinburgh. At its peak the firm employed about 100.

Shaw Binns said its expansion into London as well as Oman and an office in Johannesburg, South Africa, which is now defunct, had “heaped pressure on us”.

Mark Gorman, a member of the board of Creative Edinburgh, said Scottish firms often found breaking into the south too challenging.

He said: “They were a great design agency with phenomenal international clients. It’s really sad.”

Recent clients included Scottish brewer, Brewdog; footwear brand New Balance, Caorunn Gin and the Edinburgh International Festival.