Food equipment firm cuts 40 jobs – with more at risk

Jan 15 2008 by Alex Turner, Liverpool Daily Post

FORTY people have been made redundant and 60 more jobs are at risk, after administrators were appointed to a Merseyside firm.

Spooner Vicars, based in Newton-le-Willows, makes food processing equipment for the baking industry.

But the company failed to win sufficient contracts to sustain the business.

The firm has several contracts it is looking at completing, but this work is only expected to last three to four weeks. Admin- istrator Chris Ratten, of accountants Tenon Recovery, is not hopeful that the company will be sold as a going concern.

He said: “In recent months, there has been a decline for new orders from its customer base, placing pressure on the cash flow.

“Spooner Vicars tend to deal with large contracts and they hadn’t won as many as they needed.

“It is likely that due to order levels the manufacturing facility will be closed, with redundancies unfortunately inevitable.

“I don’t think anyone will want to take it on. A sale of the assets or part of the business is more likely.

“We have received a couple of calls which we are going to assess.”

The company has already had three owners in the last three years. Stewart Systems, a Texas-based maker of bread and bun equipment, acquired Spooner Vicars last May from Avalanche Holdings, who had bought the company from its Italian owners, Sasib, two years earlier.

The company dates back to 1849, when it was established as T&T Vicars Biscuit Machinery, in Liverpool.

It moved to its present Junction Lane site in 1885.

Spooner Vicars claims a number of technical innovations throughout its history, particularly in automating the biscuit-making process during the inter-war years.

alex.turner