Fuzzwire falls into administration

A YORKSHIRE 3D design and display specialist has entered administration.

Fuzzwire, based in Keighley, specialises in producing large scale display schemes incorporating techniques such as 3D theatre, animatronics and lighting.

Typically these are commissioned by major shopping centre owners across Europe and can also be used for events and by the entertainment industry.

Andrew Sheridan and Phil Pierce, partners of FRP Advisory, the restructuring and advisory firm, were appointed joint administrators to Fuzzwire.

FRP Advisory said Fuzzwire has suffered over the past few weeks from a sharp deterioration in its financial position which put unsustainable pressure on the company’s cash flow.

It said that despite efforts to attract external investment or to sell the business as a going concern, no buyer has emerged, resulting in its directors being forced this month to take the “regrettable decision of making redundant all staff employed by the company.”

The company employed a total of 109 staff, including 65 full time and 44 part-time workers and employed the services of 78 self-employed workers to assist with the installation of decorations.

Andrew Sheridan, partner at FRP Advisory, said: “All of Fuzzwire’s contracts with shopping centre owners around the UK relating to the installation and removal of Christmas decorations have been assigned to MK Illumination, a UK-based design and display company which forms part of a large and highly experienced Austrian-owned group with operations across Europe servicing over 400 of the largest shopping centres.

“The assignment of Fuzzwire’s UK contracts was made in order to safeguard the sound management of the Christmas decorations already in place and to ensure a smooth operational framework is in place to allow for their removal seamlessly to timetable in the new year and to ensure there is a continuing relationship for reinstallation of decorations at a range of shopping malls at future seasonal periods in 2014 and beyond.”

It is anticipated that the assignment of Fuzzwire’s contracts to new owners MK Illumination will create job opportunities with the company in the near term.

 

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