Torotrak to close Leyland HQ
Preston-based Torotrak, a developer and supplier of emissions reduction and fuel efficiency technology in vehicles, is to close its Leyland headquarters and make all staff based at the site redundant.
The listed company, which specialises in the use of ground-breaking KERS technology for buses and V-Charge to boost the power of smaller engines for cars, has seen its share price tumble as the car industry has turned its attention to electric cars instead of making traditional engines more efficient.
In January it announced a strategic refocus of the group including the consolidation of its engineering resources to reduce its ongoing cash operating costs.
The company, which also has an office in Silverstone, has not given details of how many people will be affected but company accounts to March 2016 show it employed 85 staff, 57 of which were engineers at the Leyland site, and it had a total wage bill of £4.7m.
Last year’s pre-tax losses almost doubled to £14.3m on a turnover of £1.2m.
“The board continues to focus on realising value from Torotrak’s technology portfolio and other assets,” it said in a stock market statement.
The group said it expects to close the financial year to the end of March with £5.1m of cash, in line with expectations but added that the net assets of the company will fall below half of the value of the called-up share capital.
Under Section 656 of the Companies Act 2006, when this happens the directors are required to call a general meeting of the company to discuss whether steps should be taken to deal with the situation. It will hold this meeting on May 31.
“The board does not consider that any steps are required to be taken beyond those already in hand and accordingly, no resolutions will be put to Shareholders at the General Meeting,” it said.
