Engineering group Metalrax is to come out of administration after a rescue deal was agreed with financiers, securing 387 jobs.
The West Midlands-based manufacturer of bakeware and kitchen accessories, which employs about 450 staff, was acquired by a group of companies headed by Bowman Birmingham following its sudden collapse. Metalrax had gone into administration on Tuesday. Greybull Capital provided the corporate finance to purchase the company’s assets.
Greybull Capital’s directors are Knightsbridge-based financiers Marc and Nathaniel Meyohas who have previously backed buy-outs of retailers Comet, Game and Rileys.
On appointment, joint administrators of Metalrax Will Wright and Mark Orton of KPMG sold the business and assets of the group to Bowman Birmingham. Metalrax will now trade as Arc Specialist Engineering, with the Meyohas brothers committing to a ”significant” investment programme.
KPMG Will Wright said: “Being able to sell the business and assets together with shares in solvent businesses within the group, has been a great solution to securing a future for the business and more importantly just under 400 jobs.”
The company, founded in the West Midlands in 1964, had faced very challenging trading conditions in the months leading up to entering administration.
Sales at Metalrax had been down following the loss of a major contract with supermarket chain Morrisons last July. The supermarket had contributed more than 3% of the firm’s sales.
Metalrax posted a pre-tax loss of £1.4m in the six months leading up to July 1, 2012, compared to a loss of £100,000 in the same period in 2011.
