Trinity St. In Administration

British digital marketing and e-commerce firm Trinity St. has ceased trading and is in the hands of administrators.

Early reports suggest most of the staff has been laid off with immediate effect, while clients including Oasis, Keane, Arctic Monkeys and Stereophonics have been struggling to keep their official online stores open.

“Today we were notified that Trinity Street, the providers of the Oasisinet Online Store, have ceased trading,” said a note on the Manchester band’s Web site. “We have been able to set up a new store through Record Store, our previous online partner, so you may make any new purchases there.

“We are currently investigating any outstanding purchases / pre-orders and will ensure that these are honoured. This may take a little time so if you have made an order that you have not yet received, please do bear with us,” the note continued.

Fans who’ve paid Trinity St. for merchandise and not received it may find themselves among its creditors.

“The board of Trinity Universal Holdings Limited, trading as Trinity Street, regretfully announces that it has ceased trading and has called in Tenon Recovery,” said a company statement.

Trevor Binyon of Tenon Recovery, a London-based administrator with more than 40 regional offices, which is also sorting out the SecureTicket U.K. collapse that left Cambridge Folk Festival £618,000 ($906,000) out of pocket, is arranging “a smooth run-down” of Trinity’s business.

The recent boardroom upheaval made it obvious that there was behind-the-scenes strife at Trinity St., even before founding directors David Robson and Andrew Murray suddenly departed in December.

They’ve since filed a High Court action claiming they were wrongfully removed from the holding company’s board, had their voting rights withdrawn, were dismissed as employees and have been wrongly excluded from the management of the company they founded.

The writ names Sanjay Wadhwani, a director at Ingenious Ventures and former Trinity Street sales director Danny Oakes, along with Trinity Universal Holdings Limited.

Ingenious Media Active Capital, which put substantial funding in to Trinity St. in 2007, hasn’t commented on whether it was behind the alleged dumping of Robson and Murray.

Following their departure, Ingenious appointed former EMI head of digital Barney Wragg as interim chief exec.

A boardroom statement from Trinity, which pitched itself as “the leading direct marketing company for the international music industry,” said that a difficult period of trading led the directors to assess all the options before deciding to appoint an administrator.