A 175-year-old distributor of agricultural and building products has collapsed with the loss of 162 jobs.
The Bristol-based McArthur Group went into administration yesterday, following years of declining sales.
Several attempts by the company’s directors to revive its fortunes or sell it as a going concern failed, administrators FRP Advisory said, with weak revenues placing an “unsustainable pressure on cashflow”.
Staff were told yesterday lunchtime that the business would cease trading immediately with the loss of all but 21 staff, who have been kept on to assist the administrators. These jobs are also likely to go once the process is complete.
However, Andrew Sheridan, partner at FRP Advisory, said: “We have not ruled out the possibility of achieving a sale of the business and assets in some form.”
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The wholesaler found its profit margins squeezed in recent years by a trend for agricultural retailers to buy direct from manufacturers, as well as increased competition from overseas rivals.
Before entering administration, McArthur made 18 staff redundant following the recent closure of depots in Southampton and Preston as part of its efforts to save the business.
MacArthur was only bought out of a previous administration in May by its management and Rcapital, a turnaround investor, but the deal failed to reverse the decline.
Sam McArthur, its most recent chief executive, was the fifth generation to lead the family business, which has its origins making shovels for Cornish miners in the 1830s.
Most of the jobs were lost at McArthur’s headquarters in Bristol, although there were also redundancies at its premises in Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Plymouth and Elgin.
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Separately, Screwfix said it would open 50 new stores next year, a move expected to create 900 jobs.
The trade tools retailer said it that, by the end of the year, it will have created almost 2,000 jobs by opening 120 stores in two years.
Andrew Livingston, Screwfix’s chief executive, said the expansion was in response to “increasing optimism among our trade customers”.
During a visit to a group store in Cannock in the West Midlands, George Osborne, the chancellor, said the business was a “great British success story”.