A family firm that had taken 134 years to build up was destroyed virtually overnight by a simple spelling mistake in an official document. The Cardiff-based engineering company Taylor & Sons Limited collapsed within a month after Companies House officials confused it with a similarly named business in Manchester. They meant to announce that Taylor and Son Limited was being wound up but mistakenly referred to it as Taylor and Sons (with an ‘s’).
Rumours quickly spread that the Cardiff firm was in trouble leading to orders being cancelled and credit being withdrawn. The company lost its best customer Tata Steel, which brought in £400,000 a month income, as well as contracts worth £3m to build three Royal National Lifeboat Institution stations. Ultimately, the impact of the spelling error was so great that Taylor & Sons, which was founded in 1875 and employed some 250 staff, was unable to continue trading.
A judge ruled that Companies House is responsible for the firm going into administration and the government now faces an £8.8m damages claim.
Who says spelling isn’t important?
