Are Dore in deep finanical doo doo? *updated*
Posted by gimpy on January 28, 2008
Dore, the dubious dyslexia people, have recently come under criticism from brainduck and holfordwatch for publishing their research claiming to successfully treat Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) in the mighty Leamington Courier rather than a peer reviewed journal. Holfordwatch and Brainduck are very critical of the research methodology, the sample size and the ethics of advocating unproven treatments while charging hundreds of pounds. However there are more serious concerns about Dore.
I have been looking through the accounts for DDAT(UK) and the holding company, Camden Holdings Ltd, and it seems Dore are in very big financial trouble. According to the abbreviated accounts the profit/loss account of DDAT sat at -£3.8m in 2005 and -£6.8m in 2006. Not only that, it seems their liabilities outstrip their assets by a seven figure sum, this would make them insolvent without a large injection of cash. Now trading while insolvent is illegal in the UK so I can only assume that either I’ve misread the accounts, Dore came by a large amount of money (possibly from millionaire founder Wynford Dore), or in fact they are breaking the law. I would appreciate some clarification on this issue by any financial wizards out there (Dore accounts available on request), as finance isn’t my strong point.
Now Dore have recently been intensively lobbying the Welsh Assembly with some Assembly members openly advocating the widespread use of their programme so maybe they are hoping for a lucrative government contract to dig them out of their financial blackhole. However, the Assembly members should be advised that not only is there no evidence that Dore works, but they seem to be on the brink of bankruptcy.
I wonder how much Dore have suggested the Welsh Assembly pay them for the use of their programme?
*update*
Here are the numbers from the abbreviated balance sheet of DDAT(UK) as 31st March 2006
| Fixed Assets | 2006 | 2005 | |
| Intangible assets | 2,685.00 | 5,530.00 | |
| Tangible assets | 212,963.00 | 318,888.00 | |
| 212,963.00 | 324,418.00 | ||
| Current Assets | |||
| Stocks | 100,255.00 | 62,706.00 | |
| Debtors | 988,655.00 | 629,949.00 | |
| Cash at bank and in hand | 685,332.00 | 190,242.00 | |
| 1,774,242.00 | 882,897.00 | ||
| Creditors | |||
| Amounts falling due within one year | 3,134,021.00 | 1,302,826.00 | |
| Net Current Liabilities | -1,359,779.00 | -419,929.00 | |
| Total Assets Less Current Liabilities | -1,144,131.00 | -95,511.00 | |
| Creditors | |||
| Amounts falling due after more than one year | 5,687,817.00 | 3,795,479.00 | |
| Net Liabilities | -6,831,948.00 | -3,890,990.00 | |
| Capital and Reserves | |||
| Called up share capital | 1,587.00 | 1,587.00 | |
| Profit and loss account | -6,833,535.00 | -3,892,577.00 | |
| Shareholders’ Funds | -6,831,948.00 | -3,890,990.00 | |
January 28, 2008 at 6:06 pm
If they’re looking for credulous nitwits to bail them out then I suppose they’ve gone to the right kind of place.
January 28, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Legend has it that Wynford bungs them regular cash injections.
Would explain a lot about the high-pressure marketing though.
January 28, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Asked about this on their forums: http://doretalk.com/forums/p/396/2194.aspx#2194
January 28, 2008 at 9:38 pm
I think this may be a feature of double entry book keeping. I once got a big shock when I looked at my own accounts! (although sadly not as big as that
)
I really dont think this means they are in debt, quite the opposite. ALthough I dont think it means there 6 million in profit either, probably much more. One of the rumours they like to spread is that Wynford Dore is doing this out of the goodness of his heart so he would be delighted at they way these accounts could be looked at in this way.
It would be nice to have an accountants opionion on this if anyone know of one handy, to confirm what I am saying.
January 28, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Just read the bottom of this, is there any news on the Welsh Assembly, have Dore managed to con them??? I knew they were trying.
January 29, 2008 at 12:58 am
I guess you don’t know anyone who has been helped by the programme when all else has failed. How many paranoid & dyfunctional adults out there could have been straightened out had they been offered this treatment whilst at school?
Read about the Balsall Common Trial. This should be extended across the country and the results televised. This scheme needs more patronage not patronising remarks. You obviously care enough to post on this forum - do you have anyone in your family with learning difficulties?
I tried to fly to Southampton for my son’s 6 week check-up today but was turned back after circling for an hour because of the poor visability. Our previous trip was postponed because of the BAA proposed strike. It is worth me missing work and paying for flights on top of the cost of the programme to see the improvement in my son’s confidence and positive outlook, not to mention his struggles with school work improving.
If I won the National lottery I would help set up a Channel Island Centre. Opening of New Centres in a reletively new business would naturally hit profits and the creditors in the balance sheet are probably set-up costs.
January 29, 2008 at 11:10 am
Tom, I think Dore have some sympathetic assembly members but as yet I don’t think they have recieved any money from the Welsh Assembly.
JJC, I appreciate your strength of feeling however it is slightly off the topic which is the apparent financial frailty of DDAT(UK). May I suggest that your concerns might be better put to the brainduck blog which has dealt specifically with the problems with Dore research.
January 29, 2008 at 9:30 pm
JJC - I know quite a few people who have tried DORE, without particular success. I have extensive personal experience of SpLDs (not least because I’ve got one), & the various ‘treatments’ suggested for them. However, this is neither here nor there when evaluating the research data.
I’ve discussed the Balsall Common studies on the DOREtalk forums, on the thread ‘Always look at both sides of the story’, and if there’s anything you don’t feel I’ve addressed properly there, I’d be happy to discuss it with you on the forums or under the appropriate post on my blog.
The Balsall Common study was *not* carried out on people with dyslexia, and as the authors themselves say in the abstract of the follow-up paper (freely available on PubMed if you want to check):
‘Possible (and potentially synergistic) explanations include: improved cerebellar function (neural level); improved learning ability and/or attentional ability (cognitive level); improved self-esteem and self-efficacy (affective level); and improved parental/familial support (social level)’. (Reynolds, D., Nicholson, R. (2006) Follow-up of an exercise-based treatment for children with reading difficulties. Dyslexia 9:1, 48-71).
I’m always interested in unpacking the research, though I’d be greatful if you could read the DORE thread first to save me repeating myself, & will be happy to discuss this with you elsewhere.
The research does not have much to do with the financial viability of DORE though.
January 29, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Gimpy, yes Alun Cairns being one of them, I have been discussing this with him, I asked if he is being paid by Dore.
Afterall, parent can be forgiven for making an informed choice in a desperate attempt to help thier children, but someone who is actually looking at the research, and is in possension of the facts.. what reason could he have for supporting Dore?
January 30, 2008 at 10:38 pm
i have just had the most awful experience with my son on the dore programme a would advise anyone thinking of putting there child on the programme not to. i hope the dore centre are going into liquidation the sooner the better
January 30, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Dawn, can you tell us what happened?
February 13, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Short accounts filed with Companies House as above have little relation to the true state of a company. But they are often informative in other ways. (Have a look at my article on the supposed charity Dyslexia Action and what their accounts reveal.)
The issue of insolvency is slightly more liberal than you say. A company is allowed to trade while insolvent if the directors have a reasonable belief that it can become solvent again. This allows companies that are generally in good health to trade themselves out of short-term difficulties.
The amount owing to debtors doesn’t paint the whole picture either. The first question is when is that money due as business loans are often staged over a number of years. The second question is to whom the money is owed? This has a big implication on the solvency. If the main debtor is also the main shareholder (a Mr W. Dore I suspect), they are unlikely to call the debt in.
The financials of Dore are very interesting. I’ve not been able to find out how much money Wynford Dore had after selling his paints business but £5 - £20 million is my guess. By his own admission an awful lot has gone into the Dore Achievement Centres. The shift in marketing strategy over the last couple of years indicate to me that the Dore business is now having to stand on its own without Wynford’s open cheque book.
The true state of the company is hard to assess as its not clear if the non-UK centers are owned by Dore UK, owned by Wynford Dore personally or franchises. So a true picture of assets, turnover and debts cannot be seen.
February 25, 2008 at 3:34 am
Gimpy — did you know that Dore are marketing on YouTube?
http://www.youtube.com/user/DyslexiaADHD
I don’t have the time or skills to mount a counter-campaign; maybe you do or have contacts that can.
February 25, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Hi Liz, yes I’ve seen that video before. I may be able to piece together a response in the next week or so.
February 25, 2008 at 10:29 pm
I did try and leave a comment or two when the first few appeared, then there were hundreds.
It would be great to get some of the interviews with Wynford Dore up there.
May 17, 2008 at 1:43 pm
[...] UK may also be sailing a bit close to the wind, though DORE staff have not been so keen to answer [...]
May 17, 2008 at 1:47 pm
[...] Comments DORE Australia colla… on Are Dore in deep finanical doo…nash on University of Westminster deba…HappyGilmore on The deceptive lies by [...]
May 23, 2008 at 4:20 am
May 23rd 2008
I enrolled my son with Dores as they diagonsed him with ADHD, which I found out later was not correct. He was on the programme for 12 months, and showed no signs of improvement. I obtained credit through a finance company to pay for the programme, which cost me $6500 in total. I requested a refund from Dores as I was told at the time of signing the contract, that there was a money back guarantee, if after 12 months of doing the exercises there was no improvement. (I would never have joined the programme if I hadn’t been informed of this, as I am a single mother and this is a lot of money to try to pay back). I have paid them $2500 and still owe the finance company $4000. After numerous letters and phone calls to Dores, which were ignored, after approximately 6 weeks I was contacted by the Manager of Dores, only to be told I had been on the programme too long to get a refund. I contacted them within the 12 months to tell them I was cancelling, but because of their stalling to contact me, it took the contract into nearly 14 months. I was told there would be no refund and I would have to pay the balance owing on the programme to the finance company. As I refused to make anymore payments, I am now receiving abusing and threatening calls from them. I put the matter into the hands of Consumer affairs about 8 weeks ago, and was yesterday 23/05/2008 advised by them that Dores Achievement Centre had officially gone into solvency,(surprise, surprise], so there would be no refund and I still had to pay the balance owing to the finance company. I hope there are not too many other people who have been ripped off the same way I have, trying to do the best for their kids.
May 23, 2008 at 4:40 pm
[...] Science, Brainduck, Gimpy, Left Brain/Right Brain, Podblack, and right here on HolfordWatch - while Gimpy raised the issue of financial problems with Dore back in January. However, the mainstream media [...]
May 24, 2008 at 1:03 am
[...] January 2008, Gimpy found that the DORE UK accounts showed that they had an accumulated loss of ~£6.8 million to 2006 (~US$13 million ~AUS$14 [...]
May 24, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Vicki, did someone at DORE actually tell you your son had ADHD, or did they say CDD? Who told you that?
There are not many people there qualified to give an ADHD diagnosis.
May 25, 2008 at 3:04 pm
[...] a shared interest because they also have diagnosed learning difficulties. Earlier this year, they realised that Dore was only being kept afloat by loans from Wynford Dore. It was obvious that without further injections of cash, treatments could only be funded using the [...]
May 26, 2008 at 6:12 am
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May 27, 2008 at 5:15 pm
All I can say is that I am in shock right now. My son has been on the program for 20 months and we have invested sooo much time into it. We have done our exercises faithfully and we have made great gains or should I say green bars at last. I feel for my son right now because these exercises have been frustrating and difficult yet he never NEVER gave up. I feel like I have failed him in some way, we were really making gains. I know we were on the program for a long time but we were not giving up. He is eight and worked so hard at this program to think we will not finish when we were just about there. Will all this hard work have been for nothing, I don’t know what to think right now. My only thoughts are for my son and how HARD he has worked and for what? I have read so many things today about DORE things I don’t want to believe. Do I continue tonight with the exercises? What do I tell my son?
May 27, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Kathy - I know exactly what your feeling right now. Im somewhere between upset and angry at the moment. My son has been on the DORE programme for the last 9 months and we’ve been through all the ups and downs, the tantrums of not wanting to do his exercises, the tears of ‘just wanting to be normal’ and I feel I’ve been on the roller coaster with him. I remember the feeling of complete relief when I first spoke to an adviser at one of the centres; they knew exactly what I was talking about - at last someone understood! and now what? I feel that we as a family have been completely let down.
May 29, 2008 at 7:08 pm
After reading many of the statements regarding the DORE PROJECT i am surprised to read so many negative statements. My son has been on the dore project for just under a year and through his pure determination and hard work has just started to achieve the goals that were set out for him at the start of the course. i for one hope that the problems that the dore project are experiencing at the moment are short lived and that with their help my son can continue to improve and reach his full potential.
May 31, 2008 at 12:40 am
[...] of Dore going bust, following up a comment from a Dore employee. Back in January, he published a detailed analysis of the Dore accounts, flagging up serious concerns about their viability even then. The mainstream media continued to [...]
June 2, 2008 at 8:02 am
My opinion on this whole affair is that it seems that as a nation we are a bunch of negative conspiracy based people who just cannot wait to knock something outside of the norm, to get a government to underwrite such a scheme would take many years, it’s no great suprise to those in the know to realise that the government rakes in millions from the drug industry in taxes, currently this is the accepted method of treament for some of the more severe areas that are covered by the dore program.
My daughter has almost completed the program and has shown great improvement on a variety of measurable tasks and her school results has shown great improvement in the last year.
It’s like anything in life, one shoe doesn’t fit everyone and we should maybe look at the winners and not concentrate all are efforts on the losers.
One day in the future this program may be santioned by a goverment body, but only if it provides a large income stream !!! this only reflects the money oriented society that we all sadly live in.
June 3, 2008 at 1:28 am
like everyone i am shocked and upset, my son was with me when we went to our appointment today to find the centre closed so we had no warning what was going on. he moans at doing the exercises but then looks at what he has got out of the program he has improved greatly at school and behaviour wise he is a different kid from the 1 that started the program. so being negative is not going to help anyone we have to think of the people on the program and at least try and find out what is going on. all those negative people can’t have suffered like the kids on the program with being different. all my son wants is to be normal and like other kids his age, this program gave him the chance to be like them, like the others i have read today i feel like i have let him down but i will not show him, he has come such a long way and we will try anything they suggest to keep that going. i can’t fault the people who worked for dore they were always supportive and understanding of my sons problems and helped him understand himself better which is half the battle
June 3, 2008 at 11:23 am
We are half way through the program, where do we go from now? Everyday is a battle to do the exercises, we have made no improvement, in fact my daughter fell off the wobble bosrd last time ! Has this been a waste of time and money? If the Dore program was having financial problems, why did they take my £2000 8 months ago? Do we get a refund? I haven’t told my daughter that the centre is closed as she would definitely not do the exercises. I am determined to carry on I am just hoping for a miracle, or have I been completely conned?
June 3, 2008 at 1:38 pm
[...] 3, 2008 · No Comments On May 16 2008 (months after Gimpy reported his concerns about Dore’s finances, and one day before it was reported that Dore Australia were in Administration) Christopher Chope [...]
June 6, 2008 at 9:08 am
Hi I’m a reporter from the Sun-Herald newspaper looking to speak to people affected by the collapse of dore. Please reply to this blog or email me lhall AT sunherald.com.au
or call 02 9282 275. ASAP. Thanks. Louise.