UK tannery closes due to demand for skins in China
UK-based tannery Fenland Sheepskin Company has called in business rescue and insolvency practitioner Peter O'Duffy as it is going into liquidation.
Twenty-three of the 28 staff at the company’s base in Somerset have been made redundant. The remaining five are being kept on temporarily to complete work on skins still on site.
Mr O'Duffy said: “The company has de facto ceased trading, except that five staff have been retained to finish off skins which were in the process of being traded. I have met the directors and the company is proceeding into creditors’ voluntary liquidation.
“The principal reason, I am told, is due to the massive increase in demand for skins, from China. The price of skins has gone up and they cannot pass the cost on.”
Ageing plant is also understood to have been an issue. Mr Duffy said: “A creditors’ meeting will be held on May 4, 2011, and an invitation will be going out to creditors and shareholders in the next day or two. We will invite offers for the assets when we circulate creditors.”
The company was founded in 1982 to tan, finish and process skins. It established links with UK breed societies and smallholders, developing a “Making the best of your sheepskin” training programme in conjunction with the Real Sheepskin Association.
The programme was a particular help to breeders and keepers of native breeds. The company has also supplied the automotive industry and the medical and childcare sector. The company tanned up to 2,000 skins a week, and had the flexibility to cater for small, specialist batches. It also provided a contract tanning service for farmers, breeders and smallholders.
