Year of pain for metals firm Mottram
METALS Group FE Mottram saw sales slide and and made a loss 2008, six months before it put its North West business into administration.
The company which makes alloys and other metals used in car manufacturing, was severely hit by the recession.
In the annual results for 2008 sales fell from £59.3m to £55.4m and the company made a loss of £655,264, compared with a profit of £275,688.
In June it put Congleton-based FE Mottram (Non Ferrous) into administration, with the loss of 61 jobs.
A month later it sold Dunstan and Wragg, a metals processing business based in Derbyshire for £300,000 and raised £500,000 by selling its Cheshire site. In both instances the purchaser was director PC Nix.
In their report the company’s directors said: “The adverse global conditions have affected all of the company’s customers and as a result demand for the core products of ferro-aluminium and ferro-titanium has been sharply down.
“Selling prices have been poor and at times it has been difficult to source scrap as the usual supply lines have been affected by the recession.”
The firm sought to cut costs, and this year introduced redundancy programmes in January and July.
As a result the break-even point has been reduced “significantly” and the level of losses is expected to fall in the remaining months of 2009.
Although FE Mottram is still registered in Congleton, the main trading business is based in Sheffield.
Looking ahead the company says it has cleared its borrowings and is in a “strong position” to capitalise on improved market conditions, which have been evident since August.
“The directors have taken action to reduce the cost base to reduce the level of losses. The break even level has been reduced significantly and the directors expect the business to be trading profitably on a monthly basis by the start of 2010.”
