Leonard Curtis selected for Nottinghamshire engineering firm
Midlands engineering and manufacturing firm Dale has fallen into administration. Professionals from Leonard Curtis have been appointed to oversee the sale of the firm’s remaining assets.
Founded in the 1970s, Dale is a Nottinghamshire engineering, manufacturing, design and subcontracting services company. The firm was closely tied to the mining industry – but since the decline of the UK coal sector in particular, the company diversified its business into other industries including manufacturing hydraulic cylinders and supplying quality machined parts through to fabricated assemblies.
In 2023, with a number of new headwinds impacting on its bottom line, Dale ran a marketing campaign to find a purchaser or investor. However, the efforts to find a buyer to take the business forward were ultimately unsuccessful – and it has now confirmed it has entered administration.
The company has ceased to trade. And with the appointment of Sean Williams and Richard Pinder of restructuring firm Leonard Curtis, all 34 members of staff were made redundant.
Pinder, a director in restructuring and insolvency at Leonard Curtis, commented, “Upon my instruction to advise the company, it was clear that its financial and operational position was such that there was no realistic prospect of avoiding a cessation of trade and there was insufficient working capital or work in progress to support continued trade, even in the immediate short term.”
Looking ahead, Leonard Curtis will assist the Redundancy Payments Service in dealing with the processing and payment of employee claims for redundancy and their other entitlements. Beyond that, Pinder confirmed it was possible that “unsecured creditors will receive some funds back through the administration process”, though this is uncertain at such an early stage. Meanwhile, a public auction of the company’s assets will be conducted by John Pye & Sons.
