160 jobs go as administrator finally calls time on Leamington Desserts
The business, formerly owned by PoleStar Foods, had been loss-making for some time and went into administration on November 30 after a cash injection from Privet Capital secured 255 jobs at PoleStar's factory in Okehampton but failed to guarantee the future of the Leamington site.
Will Wright, joint administrator from KPMG, told FoodManufacture.co.uk that he had been in talks with interested parties for some weeks but had not received a viable offer for the company, which makes own-label frozen desserts for supermarkets and caterers.
"The business has always operated below capacity so a going concern sale was a tough challenge and, unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were not able to secure a deal.”
161 of the 166 staff at the site have been made redundant, except five that have been retained to help with the orderly wind down of the business, he said.
PoleStar meltdown
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".
