73 jobs go at George Wilkinson in Burnley

SOME 73 jobs have been lost at Burnley cookware firm George Wilkinson after its parent company PCS Brands went into administration.

The business has its headquarters in London but employs a further 230 staff at sites in the West Midlands, Yorkshire and Norfolk, and has 30 shops. An extra 31 staff are being made redundant at these locations.

Workers at George Wilkinson, where 19 staff have been kept on, have endured a rocky time in recent years.

The business’s former parent company Metalrax Housewares avoided administration in April 2013 when the wider group, Birmingham-based Metalrax, went into administration and was broken up.

The Housewares arm was picked up in a solvent sale to Cable Capital Partners, part of Cable Finance, only to fall into administration two months later when it was bought in a pre-pack deal by US-based homewares group Oneida International, which owns PCS.

Administrators from KPMG put the company’s problems down to “significant trading difficulties”. They are now looking for a buyer.

Partner Paul Flint said: “Unfortunately PCS Brands Ltd has experienced significant trading difficulties for a while and has been unable to sustain the business resulting in our appointment as administrators.

“The business has a number of retail and wholesale outlets across the UK and we are very keen to hear from anyone who may be interested in purchasing all or part of the business and its stock. We have retained staff to help us fulfil current orders and support customers during this time, but have unfortunately had to make some redundancies across the business. We would encourage any interested parties to contact the joint administrators as soon as possible.”

KPMG is familiar with the business having also handled the April 2013 administration of Metalrax Group and the pre-pack two months later.