85 jobs lost as manufacturer collapses

85 jobs have been lost at a 60-year-old manufacturer after administrators were forced to close the business.

Docherty Group, which employed 73 people, and Newtec South West both ceased to trade last week after failing to stem falling sales.

The business made heating products and ran training courses for installers of flue and chimney products.

It had generated annual sales of more than £20m and employed 150 people in 2014 but had been in decline since then and five years later was around half the size.

However the Birmingham-headquartered business still operated across 10 sites, including Leeds, Warrington, Nottingham and Ripley.

Its director, Patrick Simpson, had unsuccessfully sought to raise funding and then sell the business before FRP Advisory partners Andrew Sheridan and Raj Mittal were appointed as joint administrators.

They said: “Docherty Group had suffered severe cashflow pressures in recent months and despite the best efforts of the director, the challenges facing the business were not able to be resolved and resulted in the difficult decision to place the business into administration.”

Simpson had been a director since 2010 and took over the business in 2017 when former managing director Allister Moorcroft and his wife Nicki retired.

Moorcroft was the son of founders Barry and Helen Moorcroft, with the business being given Helen’s maiden name.

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