Metalrax calls in administrators
Hundreds of workers face an uncertain future today after manufacturing group Metalrax suspended its shares on the stock market and called in the administrators.
The company says a worsening funding crisis at the firm has prompted the move.
Metalrax, based in Alvechurch near Bromsgrove, owns the Samuel Groves kitchenware factory in Station Road, Oldbury, and Cooper Coated Coil engineering plant on the Planetary Industrial Estate in Wednesfield, employing around 60 people.
The whole group, with around eight different companies, employs about 450 people. It is problems at the kitchenware and consumer durables arm of the business that led to the funding crisis.
Efforts to secure outside funding have failed, said Metalrax today, leaving it with no alternative but to put itself into administration.
Group chief executive Andrew Richardson said administrator KPMG was being appointed today and Metalrax has suspended trading in its shares on the AIM small stock market.
It is expected the team at KPMG will try to find a buyer or investor for the business, and will keep it running as a going concern in the meantime.
But Metalrax said today that it had already been working with accountants from KPMG for some time, looking at a possible sale of part of the business or its assets to raise much-needed cash.
This had been unsuccessful and Metalrax's "significantly worsening" working capital situation and the failure to secure further financing for the business has pushed the directors to call in administrators today.
The company has been facing increasing problems for months, particularly after the loss of a major contract to supply bakeware to the Morrisons supermarket chain last summer. No-one at KPMG was available to comment on the situation at Metalrax early today.
