Natural stone business on the brink as buyer pulls out

A deal to save stricken natural stone business Realstone has fallen through putting the company on the brink of extinction.

Keith Marshall and Gareth Harris of RSM Restructuring Advisory were appointed joint administrators of Chesterfield-based Realstone 18 May.

Realstone is one of the largest suppliers of natural stone in the UK and operates from its freehold head office and manufacturing site near Chesterfield.

The decision to appoint administrators was made by the directors of Realstone following a period of sustained trading losses and sales underperformance which meant the business was no longer viable.

The business and assets of Realstone were marketed prior to the appointment of administrators and it was hoped a deal saving all 35 jobs would have completed late last week. Unfortunately, the intended purchaser pulled out of the transaction.

In the absence of this sale being quickly resurrected, the administrators says they are now assessing their options in terms of closing the business or performing limited conversion of raw materials to finished goods to maximise realisations for creditors.

Five redundancies were made on 6 June and the administrators are expecting to make further redundancies unless a sale of the business and assets completes quickly.

Keith Marshall, RSM restructuring partner and one of the joint administrators, said: “It is disappointing that after two weeks of trading the business in administration in order to preserve the opportunity as a going concern, that the front running purchaser was unable to complete the transaction as intended.

“We continue to assess our options with a view to maximising realisations for creditors and attempting to safeguard as many jobs as possible.”