A pivotal meeting between credit insurer Euler Hermes and eBuyer was scheduled for Monday 7th August and unless the on-line reseller can provide up-todate management and company accounts, all remaining cover could be pulled.

Last month, Euler halved credit insurance for eBuyer, after reports that it was not paying suppliers on time and had not been forthcoming with company data ( see MicroScope, 17 July ).

But Euler is not the only credit insurer getting twitchy about eBuyer. Atradius has completely withdrawn its insurance, leaving distributors including Westcoast and ETC trading without cover.

Channel sources said the situation with eBuyer was causing concern and not only had it failed to le accounts for the previous year, due on 31 July, but attempts to meet with the owners and directors had proved very difcult.

The current regime has been unwilling to provide company financials, which has caused some nervousness among principal suppliers and credit insurers,” said one source.

On top of the audited company accounts for eBuyer UK Ltd and eBuyer Holding for the most recent trading year, suppliers also want to see monthly trade figures.

Another source said the reluctance to provide information to insurers and suppliers “may be [eBuyer’s] downfall as a result of massively reduced credit”, adding Euler could walk away after today’s meeting and withdraw all cover if information is not presented.

The situation has been slowly building for months. One source in the credit industry said insurers were careful not to pull credit in one go, preferring to downgrade it gradually and allow companies to trade out, “but given the nature of its business, eBuyer’s ability to trade in the long term would be hit by the removal of credit lines”.

Sources close to eBuyer said the credit situation needed to be recited and hoped that the scheduled meeting would resolve the issues.

Reiterating a statement made last month, Helen Slinger, head of marketing at eBuyer, said: “The variation of terms with suppliers is relatively common in the industry and is not an issue of concern.”

She added that during the past nine months it had put signicant investment into a state-of-the-art, purpose-built warehouse and automated order fullment system, in line with expansion plans.

By Paul Kunert