Majority of staff made redundant after collapse of arts and crafts company

Almost 40 jobs have been lost with the collapse of a Greater Manchester arts and crafts products manufacturer.

Brian Clegg (Educational Products) was founded in 1973 and made children’s arts and crafts products, supplying both retail and educational markets across England and Wales.

It operated from two sites, in Rochdale and Middleton.

However, the company had been loss making for some time and suffered from sustained cashflow pressure from rising input prices.

An accelerated merger and acquisition process was conducted in recent months but, without a viable offer, the business was ultimately placed into administration.

Anthony Collier and Richard Goodall, of specialist business advisory firm FRP, were appointed as joint administrators on Wednesday, February 8.

They said, regrettably, upon appointment, almost all 40 roles were made redundant. A small group of staff has been retained to assist with the duties of the joint administrators as they complete the winding up of the business.

Anthony Collier, partner at FRP, said: “Brian Clegg was a well established business with its products used in nurseries and schools across the UK

“Unfortunately, the business was no longer sustainable in its current form and, as a consequence, has ceased to trade. We will now explore options for a sale of the residual business and assets.”

He added: “We will continue to provide support to impacted staff and will work with them to make applications to the Redundancy Payments Service.”