Martyn Pullin, Mark Hodgett and David Shambrook of business advisory firm FRP were appointed as Joint Administrators on 28 September 2022.
The business cited significant financial challenges in recent years due to rising raw material input prices, increasing energy costs and sector-wide recruitment challenges as major drivers behind its administration.
Attracting investment
FRP said a marketing process was conducted to attract fresh investment into the business but, without any viable offers and without the resources to continue trading, the directors appointed administrators and closed the business.
Of the 219 staff employed at the business, 171 roles were made redundant upon appointment of administrators. The remaining staff have been retained in the short term as operations are wound up and administrators move toward an asset sale of its two freehold manufacturing sites in Leeming Bar, plant and machinery and its intellectual property.
Martyn Pullin, Partner at FRP, said: “The Vale of Mowbray was a proud family business with a loved brand that has been synonymous with pork pies for generations. But the increasingly difficult trading conditions being experienced by many energy and labour intensive manufacturing businesses have ultimately led to the business’ closure.
Call to action
“We are urgently calling on any interested parties to come forward. In the meantime, we are preparing to wind up the business’ operations and move towards an asset sale in line with our statutory obligations. We are on site and supporting staff, through what is an extremely challenging time, as we support claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.”
News of the company entering into administration comes just four months after the pork pie maker invested £4m in a new NPD project, which saw new machinery, 30 new jobs and the launch of a new product to its portfolio.
Meanwhile, Andrew Taylor, partner and head of restructuring at law firm Shakespeare Martineau, provides insight into how food and drink firms can avoid administration.