Leamington Desserts lays off 45 staff - and still no news on a sale
KPMG was appointed administrator for Leamington Desserts Ltd on November 30 after a cash injection from Privet Capital secured 255 jobs at the PoleStar factory in Okehampton but failed to guarantee the future of the Leamington site.
Joint administrator Will Wright told FoodManufacture.co.uk this morning that he had received no formal offers for the business - which manufactures own-label frozen desserts for supermarkets and caterers - by the December 22 deadline.
“The offer deadline came and went and we are now in discussions with the parent company as to where we go from here.”
He declined to comment on whether he remained confident of selling the business as a going concern but said the site was still operational at the moment with around 120 staff.
The latest round of redundancies at the site had been signalled by PoleStar last autumn after chief executive Keith Ellis stepped down following disagreements with the chairman and board.
Structure ‘not fit for purpose’
PoleStar was formed in December 2009 following the acquisition of Heinz’s UK frozen desserts business, with financial backing from Bank Leumi (UK).
However, commercial director Sue Garfitt said that bosses had “inherited a structure that was not fit for purpose” which had made it hard to turn the loss-making business around in the months following the acquisition.
Things finally came to a head in late November when Privet Capital stepped in to prevent PoleStar's immediate collapse and acquired 100% of its equity, while Centric Commercial Finance provided facilities to support the buyout and growth of the company.
However, administrators were appointed to the Leamington factory, which Privet described as "significantly loss-making".
According to a site advert, Leamington Desserts has an annual turnover of around £10.5m, split between retail (65%) and food service (35%) customers, while its production facility covers 5,740m2.
