Jobs saved in metals business buyout

A Lancashire firm that specialised in sheet metal fabrication has been bought out of administration by its management.

The directors of Leigh-based Enterprise (UK), which counted McDonald’s as a customer, have acquired the company’s assets from administrators at the Manchester office of accountancy firm Begbies Traynor.

Begbies were appointed by Enterprise’s lenders, Royal Bank of Scotland Invoice Finance and NatWest, after the directors attempted to put the firm into liquidation.

Joint administrator Jason Greenhalgh said the company had suffered from falling orders and had been unable to recover despite making some staff redundant earlier in the year.

The deal will see all 13 staff retain their jobs and transfer to the new company. Mr Greenhalgh said the sale had secured a better return for creditors than liquidation but could not say if unsecured creditors, owed around £600,000, would receive a dividend.