Failed MBO plunged family-owned firm into administration

A failed management buy-out at a Leicestershire print and packaging firm was enough to plunge it into administration, with 56 jobs lost.

According to documents seen by TheBusinessDesk.com, an offer from directors Marcus Cross and Richard Dalby of the family-owned Greenshires Group to buy the firm in a pre-pack deal was agreed but the deal fell apart at the last minute and it called in FRP Advisory to act as administrators.

The administrator’s documents show a company which was making a small annual profit. However, a combination of factors including suppliers tightening credit terms, financing of a new rigid box division, high debt financing costs and the implications of legacy debt left the directors with nowhere to go and Nathan Jones and John Lowe of FRP were called in as joint administrators on February 2023.

Greenshires employed 56 long-serving staff when FRP were appointed, including the directors. All were immediately made redundant, bar three who kept on in a short-term consultancy basis to help with the wind-down of the company.

FRP says that unsecured creditors are unlikely to receive any of the almost £1m owed to them.