Administrators appointed to Midlands furniture maker

Corporate recovery group Begbies Traynor has been called in to one of the Midlands most historic manufacturers.

John Kelly and Andrew Cordon, from the Birmingham and Nottingham offices respectively, have been appointed joint administrators of Barton Products Limited.

Based at Long Eaton, near Nottingham, it is primarily a maker of chairs and seats for both the retail and office markets.

Products are supplied indirectly to the likes of John Lewis and Laura Ashley.

However, the family owned company has a history dating back to the beginning of the last century, originally starting out producing ammunition boxes for World War I.

Twenty-five of the 69-strong workforce have been made redundant.

But the £2.5 million turnover business is being run as a going concern with a view to finding a buyer.

Mr Cordon said the generally difficult economic climate of the past few years had taken its toll.

Mr Cordon said it was particularly sad given Barton Products Ltd’s heritage, with the website proudly declaring the firm to be “a wholly British business keeping skills and craftsmanship alive in this country”, and lauding its ability to manufacture all products on site.

He went on: “This is a firm offering high quality furniture made by committed people. 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.”

The timber mill was originally in Nottingham but switched to Barton Road, Long Eaton, in the late 1960s.

Today it is a 5,000 sq m factory on a freehold site.

It has the ability to manufacture a wide variety of products from the raw timber to the finished goods.

It has a standard range of frames but frequently worked to customer’s own bespoke designs.

Interested parties should contact john.kelly@begbies-traynor.com or andrew.cordon@begbies-traynor.com