The article you were not allowed to read: Why Growthops was doomed to failure
Seven years ago, Mumbrella published a piece of analysis pointing out that a combination of high costs, related-party transactions and a rich valuation were raising serious questions about a plan to float the company then known as Trimantium Growth Ops.
Legal action forced us to remove the post. With Growthops this week in the hands of liquidators, we can now republish the post
Tim Burrowes, publisher of Mumbrella, writes:
Back in 2018 Mumbrella was sued for defamation. We couldn’t write about it at the time, but now we can.
For the first time in more than seven years, the piece that attracted the writ is republished below.
The article was a piece of analysis, written by our then news editor Paul Wallbank, predicting that the planned float of Trimantium Growth Ops would be a disaster. Spoiler: it was, and it continues to be. This week, dozens more people lost their jobs with the company, these days known merely as Growthops, moving into administration.
Yes it was overpriced at the beginning, but as of 2021 it was on solid financial footing, and started buying business.
The real decline and fall happened in 2022-2025. Kingston had nothing to do with that.
Yes the current management team are to blame. Their silence has been deafening in the last 6-12 months other than some bland notices delaying the AGMs and none of these notices carried a health warning that the business was at serious risk as a going concern. The announcement on Monday to shareholders did strangely enough not even mentioned the word “shareholder” – as a long suffering one I’m sure that my fellow shareholders would agree that the contempt the current board has shown for the owners of the company I.e the shareholders, is an utter disgrace. Perfectly good business run into the ground and I feel also for the many employees now out of job with no notice period whatsoever.