Feb 1 2006
Edward Klempka and Ian Stokoe of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP were appointed joint administrators of KeyCheck Limited and Choice Gift Vouchers Limited, one of the UK’s leading supplier of gift vouchers on Tuesday 31 January 2006.

KeyCheck Limited is a non-trading holding company; its wholly-owned subsidiary, Choice Gift Vouchers Limited, trades as a clearing house for retail vouchers from offices in Gateshead. In this role it issues Choice vouchers to its customers which then on-sell them to the general public to use in retail outlets as payment for goods supplied. Many major high street retailers accept the vouchers in lieu of cash.

Following the administration, retailers will no longer accept Choice vouchers. Accordingly, the joint administrators urge members of the public who have vouchers which are still unredeemed, to approach the organisation they bought the vouchers from to seek a refund or be issued with alternative vouchers.

Edward Klempka, joint administrator and partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers said:

“It is regrettable that as a direct result of two major customers failing to pay their January accounts, Choice could not meet its payment obligations to retailers. As such, the directors of Choice had no alternative but to seek the protection of administration.

"The administrators will continue to manage the business while seeking a buyer and will do all we can to ensure that members of the public are not unduly inconvenienced.”