DEALS & RESTRUCTURING

Buyer sought for £2.5m chair maker Barton Products

Published 06.01.2012 06:00 | Last Updated 06.01.2012 06:00

Barton Products, a £2.5m heritage domestic and contract furniture manufacturer based in the east midlands, is up for sale.

Andrew Cordon and John Kelly from insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor have been appointed administrators and issued a clarion call to potential buyers.

In a statement, Begbies Traynor said it had made 25 of the privately owned company's 69 workers redundant, but continued to run the business as a going concern.

Andrew Cordon said: "It is a fantastic opportunity for someone to come in and purchase a company which has fallen on hard times but which was once the sort of bedrock manufacturing operation on which Britain relied. It could be again."

Barton occupies a 54,000sq ft freehold manufacturing plant in the heritage furniture town of Long Eaton with products sold through national and regional furniture stores and in to the office sector.

It has struggled, however, to register profits for more than five years, and recorded a post tax and dividends loss of more than £0.5m in 2010. At that year end date (Jun.30), it had a net asset value of £0.24m.