British Land Rover phone maker braced for collapse

Bullitt says it is ready to transfer business and 100 staff to a new company owned by its creditors

BRITAIN’S top smartphone maker, which has made JCB and Land Rover-branded handsets, is on the brink of insolvency as it struggles to compete with Apple and Samsung.

Bullitt, which specialises in toughened smartphones and had peak sales of more than £140m, has told the High Court it intends to appoint administrators, filings said.

The company told The Telegraph last night that its satellite connectivity business and all its 100 employees would be transferred to a new company owned by its creditors.

The impending insolvency appears to signal the end of its challenge in the hardware market, however.

Founded in 2009, Bullitt developed smartphones under deals with top brands. More recently, it has sought to sell phones and gadgets that can receive signals from space.

A Bullitt spokesman said: “Over the past two years Bullitt has made a strategic pivot away from hardware and focused on delivery of its world-first direct to device satellite messaging.

“To deliver future investment in the satellite service, the satellite assets and business of Bullitt Group are in the process of being sold to a new company with shareholders consisting of Bullitt’s secured lenders as well as industry and strategic partners.

“The new business will focus on licensing the technology and service to mobile network operators, other manufacturers, enterprise customers as well as government and military.

“All Bullitt Group’s UK employees will transfer to the new company.”

Bullitt first developed a Jcb-branded phone in 2012, but that deal has since ended. It last designed a Land Rover-emblazoned phone in 2020. Its latest phones included branded models from companies including bulldozer giant CAT and Motorola.

Last year, Bullitt pinned its hopes on the development of satellite phone technology that could provide network connectivity from space when there was no mobile or internet signal.

It developed a Motorola-branded gadget called the Motorola Defy – a Bluetooth dongle that boosted the signal of a regular smartphone to reach space. It claimed to provide the “most reliable satellite messaging service on the planet”. However, it came as Apple said it would launch a similar service that allowed regular iphones to send emergency text messages via satellite.

Elon Musk has also promised to offer satellite mobile connections via his Starlink network.

Samsung, meanwhile, which sells hundreds of millions of phones worldwide each year, is expected to add satellite connectivity to its devices this year.

In 2022, Bullitt co-founder Richard Wharton told the BBC he believed the business had “managed to jump ahead” of the competition, but in company filings directors admitted attempts to launch the new satellite subscription service were “always going to be financially challenging for Bullitt”.

Accounts for Bullitt show it has been losing money and grappling with a growing debt pile as rising interest rates push up the cost of repayments. Its sales fell sharply in 2020 amid a slowdown in Asia as the pandemic bit. Supply chain constraints during the period also affected production.

The latest accounts for Bullitt show its revenues recovered in 2021 to nearly $180m (£142m), up from $120.6m in the year before. However, it lost $11.2m in 2021 and had just $2.9m of cash left at the end of the year. Net debt stood at $43.7m. Bullitt was also forced to defer HMRC payments in 2020, 2021 and 2022, accounts show.

It was bought out by management in 2019, along with investment from venture capital firm BGF. It was previously owned by private equity firm Exponent.

According to Companies House filings, Lloyds Bank and BGF hold charges over Bullitt. A spokesman for Lloyds declined to comment. BGF did not respond to a request for comment.

Bullitt is one of the only mobile phone makers based in Britain.

‘Bullitt has pivoted away from hardware to deliver world-first, direct to device satellite messaging’