Assets of furniture manufacturer up for sale after administration

The Yorkshire assets of a collapsed manufacturer, Nathan Furniture, have gone up for sale, including a 125,000 sq ft manufacturing facility.

Steven Muncaster and Sarah Bell, both from insolvency firm Duff & Phelps, were appointed as joint administrators on 20 March 2017.

Nathan reportedly owed unsecured creditors £1.9m at the time of administration, and it was subsequently sold to Glebe Furniture Trading, which is controlled by Nicholas Radford, also a director at Nathan and which was incorporated in February.

He was owed £477,587 as a secured creditor via Radford Furniture Company, but is due to be repaid in full, along with the only other secured creditor, Bibby Financial Services.

Now, the company’s Yorkshire assets are now up for sale. This includes the whole 125,000 sq ft Frostholme Mill facility in Todmorden, West Yorkshire as well as extensive furniture manufacturing equipment.

Formerly a cotton mill, Frostholme is one of the largest furniture manufacturing sites in the UK and has been used for furniture production for the past 50 years.

Property and business asset consultancy Sanderson Weatherall has been appointed on behalf of the landlord, Nathan Furniture and Bibby to manage the sale of the machinery and equipment with or without the property.

Neil Simpson, partner at Sanderson Weatherall said, “This is a fantastic opportunity for an existing local or national furniture manufacturer, or a startup, to acquire both a great facility and high quality equipment.

“Whilst the online auction of the equipment is set to close end-June, there is an incredible opportunity for a buyer to purchase the equipment pre-auction and occupy the building on incentivised lease rental rates with an option to buy.

“This could be the lowest entry business opportunity on the market today.”

The auction, which includes over 500 lots of furniture manufacturing equipment, will close at 12pm on 28 June.

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