Potato firm appoints administrators as 90 jobs lost

The supplier of peeled, chipped and sliced potatoes lost a major contract, which ultimately led to the collapse of the business, administrators at Begbies Traynor said. The assets of M&F – which is based in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire – will be sold at auction.

The business closed its doors on March 10, before appointing joint administrators Paul Stanley and Andrew MacKenzie on March 13.

In total, 90 jobs were made redundant, the administrators said.

‘Loss of a major contact’

M&F was said to be trading well before the loss of the major contract. The business was processing more than 100,000t of potatoes and other root vegetables a year, and was planning a £4.4M investment in a new anaerobic digestion plant.

“The potential for the waste plant, with all permissions secured, make this potentially attractive for trade buyers,” said MacKenzie.

The investment would have saved hundreds of thousands of pounds in waste disposal costs, and would have generated £400,000 in revenue for the business, administrators said.

MacKenzie said: “It was clear very quickly that without the same level of revenue [after it had lost the major contract], the business had no way to cover its costs, and unfortunately the doors had been closed before our appointment.

‘No alternative’

“Our early investigations concluded that without the company’s main customer, which was responsible for the majority of the revenue for the business, there was no alternative to keeping the business closed to prevent liabilities rising.”

Assets to be sold in auction included: processing machinery, general office equipment, and several trucks and vehicles. Auctioneer Eddisons was appointed to sell the assets.

“We are hopeful that there will be interested parties who may want to operate the plant again, and will acquire the site as it is ready to go and has a readily available local workforce,” said MacKenzie.