KIRKBY office furniture group Dams International has been rescued from financial collapse by former management.
Managing director Chris Scott and Michelle Moore yesterday bought Dams back from the administrators.
The news comes less than a week after the firm was placed into administration.
Yesterday’s rescue means that 70 out of a total of 180 local jobs have been spared the axe.
In a statement last night, the administrators said the joint administrators had completed a sale of the business and its assets to a team led by the former management.
The 70 saved jobs belong to staff based at Dams’ Knowsley furniture plant.
Paul Flint and Brian Green, from KPMG Restructuring, were appointed joint administrators to Dams International on September 30. At that time, they blamed the collapse on a failed foray into the logistics business.
Commentating on the appointment, Mr Flint, associate partner at KPMG Restructuring, said: “We are delighted to have been able to complete such a quick sale of Dams International, minimising disruption to both suppliers and customers. The management team were backed in this transaction by Venture Finance, who have been able to adopt a proactive approach in the current market place to facilitate this deal.”
The administrators had said that they would have to issue redundancy notices to all staff, including the 180 who work at Kirkby.
The firm was once seen as one of Merseyside’s fastest-growing family businesses before it became the region’s latest victim of the recession.
Owned by the Scott family, Dams last year enjoyed annual sales of £42m, but this year ran into trouble after it branched out into the logistics business.
Established by Barry Scott in 1967, Dams operated from its manufacturing base in Kirkby with a showroom in central London, and regional distribution centres in Hertfordshire, York, Glasgow and Bridgwater, Somerset.
The distribution business delivered furniture to homes around the country on behalf of national furniture retailers and supermarkets. Part of its service was that staff would assemble flat pack furniture for customers.
Over the last 12 months, Dams experienced a significant fall in sales and extensive trading losses.
In 2005, founder Barry Scott handed Dams to his eldest son, Chris Scott.
