Tri-wire sale safeguards 31 jobs
A FURTHER subsidiary of Manchester-based cable manufacturer B3 Industries has been sold out of administration.
Tri-Wire, which is based at Normanton in West Yorkshire, was sold via a pre-packaged administration deal to Anglia Metal. The deal has saved 31 jobs.
The sale was concluded by Colin Haig, Paul Flint and Allan Graham, who were appointed as joint administrators of B3 Industries last week. Since then, the administrators have also agreed to sell off Crawley-based subsidiary Blue Helix to a management buy-out team led by Colin Ryall last week.
B3 Industries’ main subsidiary, Manchester Cables, and its sister firm FTTX both remain in administration, however. A buyer is being sought for the firms, which employ around 100 staff combined.
Commenting on the sale, Paul Flint, joint administrator and associate partner at KPMG, said, “The difficult trading conditions experienced by the B3 Industries Group has had a knock-on effect on Tri-wire Limited, so we’re delighted to have been able to conclude such a swift sale of the business. In particular, it’s fantastic to have been able to safeguard the future of the workforce in Normanton, and we wish both the staff and the new owners well.”
B3 Industries was owned by members of its management team and former Aston Ventures partners Paul Ruocco, Douglas Barrowman and Tim Eve, although the biggest single shareholder was ex-Tri-Wire boss Michael Walton with just over 20% of the shares.
Aston Ventures arranged the initial buy-out of the Manchester Cables business, which traded as B3 Cables, in 2001 after its ex-US parent company Belden Cables announced plans to close the former BICC Cables site.
Since then, the firm has acquired several UK and overseas competitors – including Tri-Wire and Blue Helix in a double deal announced in October last year. This followed on from a £43.1m refinancing deal with US-based asset finance firm PNC Business Credit in July last year.
