Edward Williams and Ross Connock of PwC have been appointed joint administrators of Concord Limited, BAS Castings Limited and HI Quality Steel Castings Limited.
The Group operated two casting foundries in Pinxton, Nottinghamshire (BAS) and Whittington Moor, Chesterfield (HIQ) which manufacture and supply high integrity iron and steel castings worldwide. At the time of the administrators’ appointment, on 30 March 2023, BAS had 78 employees and HIQ had 76.
The Group’s growth and financial stability has been impacted by a legacy defined benefit pension scheme which it was no longer able to support given a period of underperformance arising from Covid-19 and more recently by rising energy costs and inflation.
Despite extensive work around options, the pension trustee has recently made the difficult decision to wind the scheme up. The directors therefore concluded that the businesses could not continue to trade as a going concern and had little alternative other than to place the Group into administration.
Following their appointments, the joint administrators undertook an accelerated process of limited trading and completion of work in progress where possible alongside rapidly exploring any interest in a sale of the businesses and assets.
This has resulted in a sale of all the business and assets of HIQ which has preserved all 76 jobs to Chesterfield Metal Technologies Limited (a subsidiary of William Cook Holdings Limited) on 6 April. Unfortunately the limited interest in BAS has resulted in 59 redundancies being announced at the same date, with a small number of employees (18) retained to assist the administrators.
Eddie Williams, joint administrator, said: “I am pleased that our significant efforts since appointment have been able to save so many jobs at HIQ in a sector already experiencing a number of economic challenges. However it is very disappointing that having exhausted all options around a sale or funding, we have no alternative other than to announce this level of redundancies at BAS.
“We understand that this is a very difficult time for the employees and we will be providing support to the employees impacted over the coming weeks.”
Chris Seymour, William Cook, said: “We are delighted that we’ve managed to work with the joint administrators to complete the purchase of the majority of HIQ’s business and assets. We now look forward to stabilising the business, utilising the strength and depth from across the rest of the William Cook group and working with HIQ’s employees who will be key to future growth and profitability.”
