THE administrators of Kiveton Park Steel will continue to trade the company for another two months as it continues to seek a buyer.
The Sheffield manufacturer collapsed two weeks ago but 110 of the 120 staff have been retained, supported by key customer supply agreements which have now been extended to mid-December.
Administrators Phil Pierce and Ben Woolrych, partners of FRP Advisory, are continuing to talk with “interested third parties” in the hope of securing a sale. They do not expect to have to make further redundancies while those supply agreements are in place.
Kiveton Park Steel appointed administrators after being affected by a “sharp deterioration” within the specialist steel market.
Mr Pierce, partner at FRP Advisory and joint administrator, said: “The latest supply agreement helps underpin the funding needed to allow the business to continue to trade and service Kiveton Park’s customers. The joint administrators will continue to engage with interested parties whilst constantly reviewing the financial position of the business.”
Kiveton Park Steel’s most recent published accounts, for the year to June 2014, showed a pre-tax loss of £755,000 after sales fell 16% to £19.5m. It had also recorded losses in three of the previous five years.
Its parent company, Kiveton Park (Holdings), had fared even worse in the 2014 financial year, recording pre-tax losses of £1.43m which reduced shareholders’ funds to £3.0m.
The company, which was founded in 1922, generated around two-thirds of its income came from exports and won a Queen’s Award for enterprise for its international trade in 2012.
It works mainly in the automotive industry and supplies more than 100 different production lines in 15 different countries around the world, including Brazil, China and India, as well as Europe.
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