Cooper Lomaz Recruitment Ltd, which was registered at offices in Pottergate, appointed liquidators owing £1.37m to around 40 creditors, including HMRC (£132,000) and LinkedIn (£36,000).

But owner Mark Darby, 63, said the business "continues to trade as it has done for the past 35 years" after what he described as a "restructuring".

Cooper Lomaz is based in offices at Pottergate House in Norwich (Image: Supplied)

Cooper Lomaz Recruitment appointed liquidators on February 13, with only around £20,500 in assets available to pay creditors, according to its statement of affairs on Companies House.

Another company with a similar name, Cooper Lomaz Recruitment Services Ltd, is listed on the agency's website, which was updated on February 23.

Both companies share the same Pottergate House address and current sole director, Mr Darby, who was appointed as a director of the newer of the two companies on February 20.

Mark Darby, Cooper Lomaz's chief executive (Image: Supplied)

Companies House filings also show that he was previously listed as a director of the company from March 2023 to February 11 this year, when he resigned before being reappointed as a director nine days later.

The company was incorporated under a different name (Aspire Cambridge Talent Ltd) in March 2023, before being renamed to Cooper Lomaz Recruitment Services last June.

Directors of a company that has gone into insolvent liquidation are generally barred for five years from acting as directors of, or being involved in, another company with the same or a similar name used by the failed firm in the 12 months before its liquidation, unless one of a small number of legal exemptions applies.

Cooper Lomaz is based in offices at Pottergate House in Norwich (Image: Supplied)

In UK insolvency, 'phoenixing' is when a failed or insolvent company is closed and a new company is set up to carry on the same business, often with the same directors and a similar name, leaving old debts behind.

Mr Darby declined to comment further on the restructuring.

He acquired Cooper Lomaz from founders Jane Lovell and Charlotte Cooper in 2021, becoming chief executive after initially joining the business as manging director in 2019.

Cooper Lomaz launched in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in 1990. It specialises in recruiting in engineering, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and food, IT and digital technology, and professional services.

The East Anglia recruitment agency is headquartered in Norwich and has a 'London office' in Guildford, Surrey.

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