110 jobs go as haulage firm Swain crashes

HAULIER F Swain and Sons has gone into administration with the immediate loss of 110 jobs.

Administrators from BDO Stoy Hayward took the decision to close the business, which is headquartered in Poynton in Cheshire, on Monday.

It is understood that the company had been struggling over the past 18 months following the loss of two large contracts.

F Swain and Sons had subsequently tried to restructure its cost base and implement various cost-cutting measures – including a reduction in the size of its fleet from 100 to 70 trucks.

BDO is believed to have attempted to sell the business as a going concern but no buyers emerged.

The company was established by Frederick Swain in 1922 in the village of Prestbury, in Cheshire, and during the early years he and his son Harry collected milk churns from local farms and put them on the trains bound for the markets of Manchester.

The business remained on this site until 1986, when the increasing size of the operation made it necessary to move to larger premises.

Under the guidance of Michael Swain – the third generation to run the company – the current five acre site which is a former airbase at Poynton, in Cheshire, was acquired.

TheBusinessDesk.com understands that parent company F Swain & Sons (Holdings) and sister firm Sibley Haulage are unaffected by the administration.