Seafood firm’s assets up for grabs after administration

THE ASSETS of seafood supplier Mariner Foods will go under the auctioneer’s hammer next week.

TheBusinessDesk.com reported the firm’s administration 3 weeks ago, after heavy investment in the fish supplier’s facilities was countered by loss of customers and lack of key raw materials.

The firm was based at the Grimsby Business Park, and called in the administrators less that 12 months after it won gold, silver, and bronze at the British Frozen Food Federation Annual Awards.

Sarah Burge of Kingsbridge Corporate Solutions, the administrator now handling the winding up of the business said that problems only came in the firm’s last few months led to a reduced turnover, leaving the business unsustainable.

Kingsbridge has now instructed industrial auctioneers CJM Asset Management to sell off the firm’s plant, machinery and equipment.

The firm’s assets will go under the hammer on Tuesday June 2 in an auction that is reportedly attracting international interest.

CJM director Paul Cooper said: “Holland has a large frozen food industry and we have sold a lot of this type of equipment to Dutch end-users.

“We have been making them aware of what’s happening and I have no doubts that they will be amongst the people taking a look at what is on offer.”

He continued: “It’s a pretty spectacular array of equipment. Mariner Foods took over and equipped the factory in June 2012, so pretty much everything is post that date and quite a lot of it is considerably newer than that.”

“Food industry processing equipment has, necessarily, to be of a very high standard, which means that it tends to be remarkably expensive kit. One of the star lots in the auction for example is a specialist packaging machine that cost in excess of £50,000 when it was bought less than 18 months ago.”

“That is just one lot. We reckon that in total we’re looking at equipment that cost in excess of a quarter of a million pounds.”

 

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