Plexus and Olympian, the two Fast Track 100 IT recruiters that joined with such fanfare to form Plexian in December 2000, were never formally merged, Professional Recruiter has learned. The Olympian side of the business has been put into receivership.

The framework for the merger of Plexus and Olympian was put in place, but the two companies never legally became one entity, Plexian has admitted. ‘There were some problems with the merger, mainly driven by TUPE employment laws,’ conceded founder of Olympian and non-executive director of Plexian Richard Leman. ‘This meant that we had to run the companies independently after the merger was announced.’

He added: ‘Technically they never merged. The companies are totally separate – they are not connected in any way legally.’

The Olympian side of the business was put into receivership on 8 August because ‘it was trading insolvently’, said Leman. The two former Olympian offices in the City and Exeter were closed, and a number of redundancies made (see ‘Plexian shuts two offices’, 22 August, p5).

A Plexian spokesperson added that ‘as part of the process [of merger] the old trading companies needed to be dissolved. For technical reasons it became clear that the most efficient way for the new management to deal with that issue from Olympian’s perspective was to put the company into receivership.’

‘The market is tough,’ said Leman. ‘All companies at this moment are making measures to ensure they survive, and we would be no different to anybody else in doing that. This has been a very difficult and testing time over the last 9 or 12 months.’

The shareholders of Plexian, including Leman and Plexian CEO Howard Butterfield, have all ‘reinvested some money in the company as a vote of confidence in it’, Leman said. He assured contractors that there is no cause for concern: ‘All contractors were paid when Olympian was put into receivership. All contractors of Plexian will continue to be paid.’