Manufacturer says business is 'super strong' after putting subsidiary into administration
The director of a market-leading Shropshire manufacturing company has said the jobs of its 700 workers are safe and its business "super strong", after it put one of its subsidiary companies into administration last week.
Grainger & Worrall, based in Bridgnorth, appointed administrators Teneo Restructuring at the High Court of Justice in Birmingham on March 7 to take over its struggling subsidiary, Grainger Worral Engineering.
The main business is a market leading castings firm that is known for its work with a number of Formula One teams and top-end car manufacturers
However, a casting foundry based in Worcester that it bought in 2017, was struggling due to having just a single customer and having been hit by recent rising energy prices.
Director of the Bridgnorth-based family business, James Grainger, said it had been a "difficult decision" to put the Grainger & Worral Engineering subsidiary into administration.
He said: "After three torrid years with Covid, Brexit and then the war in Ukraine causing a rise in energy costs, the business only had a sole customer and while things were picking up it was not going to be a quick turnaround for it.
"It was taking a commitment to keep it going so we eventually had to make the difficult decision to let it go."
But he added a buyer has now been found to secure the jobs of the 36-strong workforce at the foundry in Buckholt Drive, Worcester.
He said: "We are pleased that the 36-person operation is now safe as Bridge Aluminium have bought it and they are market leaders."
And he said the main, fourth generation high-precision castings business, which employs 700 people, many of which work at the Stanmore Industrial Estate site in Bridgnorth, was in a "super strong" position.
"The company has had its challenges over the last three years but the order book is filling up and we looking super strong and in a good position," he said.
