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Update on Argyll Air Service: Council to secure new operator
Following the collapse of Highland Airways, Continue reading
Into receivership: Highland Airways loses the fight to survive
(Updated 18.00 25th March – letter from Transport Minister to Alan Reid MP Continue reading
Ennstone Thistle and other subsidiaries sold as going concerns as Ennstone Group goes into administration
Ennstone Group has announced that it has sold its UK and Polish subsidiaries – to Breedon Holdings Ltd, a company backed by Barclays Ventures and a number of other financial institutions. The sale – for an undisclosed amout, is not expected to result in any return to shareholders.
However, since the subsidiaries were understood to be trading steadily, their sale as going concerns to a stable buyer is good news for Argyll. It will be welcomed in the communities of Benderloch, Bonawe, Dunbeg and Furnace where Ennstone Thistle operates local quarries.
The sell-offs were made following the appointment as Joint Administrators for Ennstone Group of business restructuring partners, Nick Dargan and Matthew Cowlishaw of Deloitte LLP. This was done on 9th March.
At the same time the company applied to the UKLA and London Stock Exchange to cancel Ennstone plc’s listing on the London Stock Exchange with immediate effect.
The Group’s UK banking syndicate had maintained its support for the company as it struggled over the past eight months to to achieve a solvent restructuring through asset sales and attemnpts to raise new equity.
The deteriorating market conditions defeated its restructuring efforts, making its descent into administration and Stock Market delisting inevitable.
The Board of Ennstone plc have now said: ‘The Group has been facing the most challenging economic conditions for decades which have reduced operational performance. These conditions have also prevented the Group from raising the further financing it needed or from realising disposals at prices which could have resoved the Group’s financial problems. The sale of the UK and Polish subsidiaries has secured the jobs of over 1,000 of the Group’s employees’.
Matthew Cowlishaw, Joint Administrator, says: ‘The slowdown in the house building and infrastructure sectors along with the lack of funding for potential acquirers has played a significant role in the Group’s difficulties. Securing a going concern sale of the UK and Polish subsidiaries, whihc will protect over 1,000 jobs, is positive news for the employees and the industry as a whole’.
If Woolworths store closures have hit Argyll’s big towns, spare a thought for its workers in the Channel Islands
Because UK statutory redundancy payments do not apply in the Channel Islands, the Administrators for Woolworths have told the 120 staff who were employed in the company’s stores in Jersey and Guernsey that they will not be receiving any redundancy pay.
The BBC is reporting that the Administrators considered making a special payment to Jersey staff but decided not to as ‘it would set a difficult precedent’.
Woolworths’ staff in Campbeltown, Dunoon, Helensburgh, Rothesay and Oban at least had that minimum legal protection.
Argyll stores among first hit as Woolworth’s closes down
Dunoon today (27th December) was one of the first fleet of Woolworth’s stores to close as the life of the company comes to an end. Across the Clyde in Greenock, workers were also out of a job as their store too shut its doors.
On Monday 29th December Woolworths closes its stores in three more Argyll towns – Campbeltown, Oban and Rothesay. Among the last to close on 5th January 2009 is the store in Helensburgh.
In a county with a population not much above 90,000, with pensioners the biggest single percentage and with a small working population, the impact of these job loses in its five biggest towns will hit Argyll hard.
Staff will be kept on for a few days to clear up following store closures. They will also be entitled to compensation under the statutory redundancy payment scheme.
Administrators, Deloittes, say that it is not yet clear how much of Woolworth’s debt will be paid but is unequivocal in asying that it is ‘clear that the creditors and suppliers will not get paid in full’.