Wedgewood administration decision due

The High Court has begun a three-day hearing to determine what the administrators of The Wedgewood Museum can and cannot sell, to fund a £134 million pension shortfall.

A 10,000 piece china collection is at the centre of the decision, currently housed at the Museum, which entered administration last year after being left with a substantial pension debt by the company that was set up to manage the Wedgwood Group pension plan.

The Museum was, unfortunately, the last company within the Wedgewood Group to still be part of a multi-employer pension scheme covering a number of the group's employers, when the group entered administration in April 2009. This left the Museum technically wholly responsible for the pension debt of the 7,000 people in the scheme, under legislation introduced in 2005 - totalling some £134 million.

Joint administrators from Begbies Traynor, Bob Young and Steve Currie, have been involved in the sale of the Museum's assets since being appointed in April 2010. If given the go ahead to sell the collection, it could be of interest to other museums or to high-end catering businesses or establishments.

The court must decide whether the collection is held in permanent endowment or whether it is part of the charity's corporate property, and therefore available to creditors.

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