800 jobs at risk as manufacturer enters administration

800 jobs are at risk in Coventry after manufacturer Covpress collapsed into administration yesterday.
The £98m-turnover business, which has been owned by Chinese group Shandong Yongtai since 2013, suffered from “significant and urgent funding issues”.
Covpress can date its history back to the 19th century and its core business is making body panels for many of the major automotive OEMs.
Eddie Williams, Richard Lewis and David Dunckley from Grant Thornton were appointed joint administrators of Covpress. Sister company Covpress Assembly, which was known as UYT before its acquisition last year, is unaffected.
Mr Williams said: “The business has faced a numbers of challenges which has impacted on its growth strategy and unfortunately the company had to be placed into administration due to significant and urgent funding issues. 
“We are urgently reviewing the financial position of the business and will seek discussions with customers and suppliers around their support which will be critical to any outcome.”
He was optimistic about the future of the company, with the administrators choosing not to make any redundancies at this stage.
“We expect significant interest in this growing business and with that support, we will look to pursue a sale or rescue of the company,” he added.
 
Covpress was in the vanguard so far as Chinese investment in the West Midlands automotive sector was concerned.

However, its demise is the second blow to such investment in the area in less than a week, following the decision by MG parent NAIC to pull the plug on its assembly operation at Longbridge.

It will send jitters through both the automotive sector and the region’s wider business community – especially those reliant on Chinese investment.

It will also focus attention on the other high profile Chinese investment in the region’s automotive sector, London Taxi Company.

LTC parent Geely has recently invested £250m into building a factory at Ansty Park, outside Coventry, to produce electric versions of the famous black cab.

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