Assets of container firm set to go under the hammer

Assets from a Rotherham container company, which ceased trading with the loss of all 11 jobs, are to be auctioned off online.

Millhat Containers, which traded as Acorn Container Company, from Meadowbank Industrial Estate on Harrison Street, specialised in custom-make steel containers for industries including offshore, oil, petrochemical, recycling and waste management, construction, materials and food handling.

The company, which served a range of customers, from local authorities to multinational organisations, was incorporated in 2015, but a similar business had operated from the same Rotherham premises since 2001.

In its prime, Millhat Containers operated the facilities to manufacture 80 to 100 containers a week on its seven-acre headquarters in Rotherham which included 40,000 square feet of workshops and secure storage area.

Facilities included a low bake oven and spray shop for high quality fabrications; shot blasting facilities to the industry-wide standard and Computer-aided design (CAD) department for the design of custom-specification steel containers. It held more than 1,600 designs to meet new and existing legislation.

Administrators from Sheffield-headquartered Wilson Field Group are working with property surveyors Robert White & Co on the online auction with viewings of available lots from 9.30am on Monday November 5.

Engineering items going under the hammer include press brakes, guillotines, ironworker, more than 20 Lincoln mig welders, hand and power tools, miscellaneous factory steps and access platforms, shipping containers and a jack leg office.

Acorn ceased trading and all 11 jobs were made redundant before Wilson Field’s Kelly Burton and Lisa Hogg were appointed joint administrators on September 21.

Kelly Burton, director and licenced insolvency practitioner at Wilson Field, said: “The business had suffered several issues which had impacted on profitability and cash flow including a number of orders which never came to fruition and slow payment by customers.

“It is always disappointing when an established local business closes with the loss of jobs and bad debts faced by suppliers, but at the time of our involvement there was no other alternative.”