More jobs saved as Hewden depots sold
THE administrators of collapsed crane hire firm Hewden have agreed the sale of another eight depots to four different buyers for undisclosed sums.
All depots have been sold as going concerns, safeguarding the jobs of a further 64 staff.
Depots in Inverness, Whitehaven, Willenhall and Bedford have been sold to Morris Leslie, with all 38 employees transferring to the new firm.
The Lewes depot has been sold to Gap Group, with five employees transferring to the new owner, while the Nottingham depot has been sold to Nixon hire, with five jobs saved.
As previously reported by TheBusinessDesk, the Warrington and Bangor depots were sold to Cheshire-based plant hire specialist JK Ashbrook in December, preserving 16 jobs. The new business will be called Ashbrook (Warrington) and Ashbrook (Bangor) respectively, based at the same locations previously operated by Hewden.
Colin Dempster of EY, who is joint administrator for Hewden, said: “We are pleased to be able to arrange the sale of these depots as ongoing concerns, so that the employees and business can continue in these locations.”
The announcement follows yesterday’s news that the administrators have appointed equipment and machinery auction house Euro Auctions to dispose of the company’s remaining assets, including 127 cranes.
Stretford-based Hewden employed 744 staff across 33 depots when it went into administration in November. Around 250 staff were made redundant immediately, with further redundancy rounds of around 90 and 45 staff.
Three divisions of the group were immediately sold to Ashtead Plant Hire Company for £29m, with 133 employees transferring across.
Overall, 19 depots have now either been sold or had employees transfer to new owners.
Hewden’s last set of accounts were filed a year ago and cover the financial year to the end of December 2014, for which it reported a £16.6m loss but the cash-strapped firm blamed Brexit uncertainty for its financial predicament.
At the time of his appointment as joint administrator Sam Woodward of EY said: “Management has been attempting to operationally reshape the business to focus on higher margin and quicker returning assets and services.
“However, this has proven challenging with the group’s capital structure and the recent trading environment.
“Management recently undertook a number of initiatives including approaching new funders and potential acquirers to recapitalise the business, but unfortunately these efforts proved unsuccessful.”
