Curtain falls on Caldwell’s 240-year history
AN historic Cheshire engineering business has been forced to close down after losing a major contract with Wickes Building Supplies.
Administrators handling 240-year-old Caldwell’s Manufacturing had hoped to sell the business as a going concern but an agreement could not be reached with potential bidders. The closure has led to 28 redundancies.
The Warrington firm, whose tools were used to dig the Manchester Ship Canal in the 1880s, struggled to continue after losing the Wickes contract that contributed 40%, or £1.3m, to group turnover.
According to a creditors’ report by administrators at MCR the business was also affected by the withdrawal of a £200,000 loan from its parent company Caldwell’s Limited that was to help fund a manufacturing shift to China.
MCR said its preferred bidder for the business drew up a plan that required the support of the management team – Bernard, Martin and Nicholas Caldwell – but they did not agree and the deal fell through.
Caldwell’s, which made a loss of £606,000 in the year to March, owed Royal Bank of Scotland Invoice Finance more than £500,000. The bank is expected to recoup the debt but there will be nothing for non-preferential creditors owed £900,000.
Caldwell’s, established in 1770, specialised in ground breaking tools such as shovels, forks and hammers. The Duke of Bridgewater approached the business in its early years to buy the tools needed to build the Bridgewater Canal, which runs from Leigh to Runcorn.
More than 100 years later the company went on to supply the workers who dug the 36-mile Manchester Ship Canal from 1887 to 1894. Caldwell’s shovels were also used by the military to dig trenches during the First World War.
